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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Venice, Austria and Southern Germany ... > Venice; Passau to Würzburg Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Angelo Raffaele Church, Venice; St Moriz's Church, Coburg, from Pfarrgasse 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Angelo Raffaele Church, Venice; St Moriz's Church, Coburg, from Pfarrgasse’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 6 Recto:
The Angelo Raffaele Church, Venice; St Moriz’s Church, Coburg, from Pfarrgasse 1840
D31287
Turner Bequest CCCX 6
Pencil on cream wove paper, 126 x 198 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘S Aneglo [sic] | R[...]fli’ towards top right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘6’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCX – 6’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The main drawing, made with the page turned horizontally, is a loosely rendered view east along the Rio di San Nicolò, with the Angelo Raffaele church on the right, as annotated by Turner. Its Baroque entrance front is at the centre, facing the canal, and Turner loosely indicates the thermal window on its west side and the twin domed campanili further back. Beyond, aligned along the canal, is the campanile of the Carmini church, about half-way towards the south-western bend of the Grand Canal in this relatively unfrequented part of Venice.
The church’s twin towers are seen to the north and labelled again in a view of the Canale di Giudecca waterfront in the contemporary Venice and Botzen sketchbook (Tate D31853; Turner Bequest CCCXIII 32a); see also the verso of the present leaf (D31288).
As noted in the sketchbook’s Introduction, the Venice views on its early pages are intermingled with German sketches from Turner’s return journey. In the sky at the top left, separated by a pencil line, is part of a view of St Moriz’s Church, Coburg, made at right-angles to the first drawing. It is continued from folio 5 verso opposite (D31286) and limited on this page to the buildings facing the south side of the church along Pfarrgasse.1 For numerous other Coburg views in this sketchbook, see under folio 1 verso (D31278).2

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
See Powell 1995 p.242.
2
See also Powell 1995, pp.72, 82 notes 63 and 64.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Angelo Raffaele Church, Venice; St Moriz’s Church, Coburg, from Pfarrgasse 1840 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2018, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-angelo-raffaele-church-venice-st-morizs-church-coburg-r1196077, accessed 17 July 2024.