J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Oxford c.1787-91 > Oxford and Other Subjects > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner St Vincent's Tower, Naples c.1791

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘St Vincent's Tower, Naples’ c.1791
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
St Vincent’s Tower, Naples c.1791
D00005
Turner Bequest I E
Pencil and watercolour on laid paper (trimmed to an oval), 201 x 252 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram
Stamped in black ‘I – E’ bottom centre
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Copied, with variations, from the central portion of Paul Sandby’s aquatint after Antonio Fabris, Part of Naples, with the Ruin’d Tower of St Vincent, published 1 January 1778. The Castel dell’ Ovo in the left background is replaced by mountains, the foreground figures modified and a boat omitted. Finlay draws attention to the influence of William Gilpin in Turner’s simplification of the elements, and the adoption of an oval format. The other side of the sheet (Tate D40266) has a study of the masonry of the base of the tower.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘St Vincent’s Tower, Naples c.1791 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-st-vincents-tower-naples-r1140101, accessed 21 November 2024.