Joseph Mallord William Turner Sketches of Two Paintings by Claude from the Barberini and Sciarra Collections, Rome 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 81 Recto:
Sketches of Two Paintings by Claude from the Barberini and Sciarra Collections, Rome 1819
D16848
Turner Bequest CXCIII 80
Turner Bequest CXCIII 80
Pencil on white wove paper, 115 x 94 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Blue’ within upper sketch
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘80’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXCIII 80’ bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘80’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXCIII 80’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.575, as ‘Sketches of two pictures’.
1965
Jerrold Ziff, ‘Copies of Claude’s Paintings in the Sketch Books of J.M.W. Turner’, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, January 1965, pp.56, 62, 64 note 21.
1981
Peter Bicknell, Beauty, Horror and Immensity: Picturesque Landscape in Britain, 1750–1850, exhibition catalogue, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge 1981, p.4 under no.3.
1983
Michael Kitson, ‘Turner and Claude’, Turner Studies, vol.2, no.2, Winter 1983, pp.13, 15 note 50.
1984
Cecilia Powell, ‘Turner on Classic Ground: His Visits to Central and Southern Italy and Related Paintings and Drawings’, unpublished Ph.D thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London 1984, pp.151 note 1, 158–9, 160, 262, 433 (as ‘Sketches of paintings by Claude, identified in Ziff 1965’), 513 note 125, reproduced pl.91(as ‘Sketches of the Barberini and Sciarra Claudes’).
1984
Cecilia Powell, ‘Turner and the Bandits: “Lake Albano” rediscovered’, in Turner Studies, vol.3, no.2, Winter 1984, pp.23, 27 note 5.
1987
Cecilia Powell, Turner in the South: Rome, Naples, Florence, New Haven and London 1987, pp.65, 68, 127, 203 notes 1 and 20, 206 note 76, reproduced pl.71, as ‘Sketches of the Barberini and Sciarra Claudes’.
2002
Ian Warrell, Blandine Chavanne and Michael Kitson, Turner et le Lorrain, exhibition catalogue, Musée des beaux-arts, Nancy 2002, pp.108 and 193 under no.50, reproduced in colour p.109, ill.45, as ‘Copies de deux tableaux de Lorrain’.
2009
Ian Warrell, ‘ “Stolen hints from celebrated Pictures”: Turner as Copyist, Collector and Consumer of Old Master Paintings’, in David Solkin (ed.), Turner and the Masters, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, London 2009, pp.51, 226 note 35.
2010
David Solkin and Guillaume Faroult (eds.), Turner et ses peintres, exhibition catalogue, Galeries nationales, Grand Palais, Paris 2010, pp.53, 60 note 34.
The two sketches on this page were identified by Jerrold Ziff as copies of paintings by Claude Lorrain (circa 1604/5–1682), the seventeenth-century French landscapist who was the artist Turner most admired.1 Both pictures were seen in Rome.
a.
The upper study represents Pastoral Landscape with Castel Gandolfo, 1639 (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge), formerly in the Palazzo Barberini.2 Turner accompanied his schematic copy with detailed notes describing the painting’s colouring and effects, see folios 97 and 96 (Tate D16870 and D16868; Turner Bequest CXCIII 96 and 95), and this close attention to the picture has been seen to have influenced the composition and colouring of his later watercolour,3 Lake Albano 1828 (private collection).4 For example, the figure annotated as ‘Blue’ in the right-hand foreground of Claude’s landscape is matched by the blue skirt of the contandina found in a corresponding position in Turner’s watercolour.5 For a fuller discussion see folio 97 (D16870; Turner Bequest CXCIII 96).
b.
The lower sketch, meanwhile, depicts Landscape with the Port of Santa Marinella circa 1639–1640 (Petit Palais, Paris), formerly in the collection of Prince Maffeo Barberini Colonna di Sciarra.6 Turner wrote a short note relating to the work on folio 95 (D16866; Turner Bequest CXCIII 94) in which he identified it as the ‘Chara Claude’. Ian Warrell has discussed how the artist later echoed the compositional structure of the tower, trees and curving bay within his own pictorial variations, for example a pencil study for a picture in the King’s Visit to Scotland sketchbook, circa 1819–21 (Tate D17666; Turner Bequest CC 89), and an oil study of a French scene (Tate, N02992).7
The upper study represents Pastoral Landscape with Castel Gandolfo, 1639 (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge), formerly in the Palazzo Barberini.2 Turner accompanied his schematic copy with detailed notes describing the painting’s colouring and effects, see folios 97 and 96 (Tate D16870 and D16868; Turner Bequest CXCIII 96 and 95), and this close attention to the picture has been seen to have influenced the composition and colouring of his later watercolour,3 Lake Albano 1828 (private collection).4 For example, the figure annotated as ‘Blue’ in the right-hand foreground of Claude’s landscape is matched by the blue skirt of the contandina found in a corresponding position in Turner’s watercolour.5 For a fuller discussion see folio 97 (D16870; Turner Bequest CXCIII 96).
b.
The lower sketch, meanwhile, depicts Landscape with the Port of Santa Marinella circa 1639–1640 (Petit Palais, Paris), formerly in the collection of Prince Maffeo Barberini Colonna di Sciarra.6 Turner wrote a short note relating to the work on folio 95 (D16866; Turner Bequest CXCIII 94) in which he identified it as the ‘Chara Claude’. Ian Warrell has discussed how the artist later echoed the compositional structure of the tower, trees and curving bay within his own pictorial variations, for example a pencil study for a picture in the King’s Visit to Scotland sketchbook, circa 1819–21 (Tate D17666; Turner Bequest CC 89), and an oil study of a French scene (Tate, N02992).7
Claude was the artist most consistently in Turner’s thoughts during his Italian travels and his name is frequently invoked within on-the-spot landscape sketches. Turner was clearly making a direct comparison between the French painter’s pictorial vision of Italy and his own experience of it.8 He was also keen to view at first-hand as much of the seventeenth-century master’s work as possible. In addition to the two pictures from the Barberini and Sciarra collections, he also sketched paintings in the Palazzo Doria-Pamphili and the Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi, Rome, see folios 81 verso–82 (D16849–D16850; Turner Bequest CXCIII 80a–81), as well as in the Uffizi, Florence (see Rome and Florence sketchbook, Tate D16585; Turner Bequest CXCI 60). Powell has discussed how his division of pages in the Remarks (Italy) sketchbook resembles that of his earlier copies of Claude’s works in the Fonthill sketchbook, 1804 (see Tate D41265; Turner Bequest XLVII 19a).9
Claude conceived Pastoral Landscape with Castel Gandolfo and Landscape with the Port of Santa Marinella as a pair and their unusual octagonal format may have influenced Turner’s use of a similar shape for his later pendants, Peace – Burial at Sea exhibited 1842 (Tate, N00528), and War. The Exile and the Rock Limpet exhibited 1842 (Tate, N00529).10
Claude conceived Pastoral Landscape with Castel Gandolfo and Landscape with the Port of Santa Marinella as a pair and their unusual octagonal format may have influenced Turner’s use of a similar shape for his later pendants, Peace – Burial at Sea exhibited 1842 (Tate, N00528), and War. The Exile and the Rock Limpet exhibited 1842 (Tate, N00529).10
Nicola Moorby
March 2011
How to cite
Nicola Moorby, ‘Sketches of Two Paintings by Claude from the Barberini and Sciarra Collections, Rome 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www