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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > First Italian Tour 1819-20 > Gandolfo to Naples Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Aurunci Mountains and the Plain of Sessa; and a View of Sessa Aurunca 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Aurunci Mountains and the Plain of Sessa; and a View of Sessa Aurunca’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 32 Recto:
The Aurunci Mountains and the Plain of Sessa; and a View of Sessa Aurunca 1819
D15617
Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 31
Pencil on white wove paper, 122 x 197 mm
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘281’ bottom right and ‘31’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXIV 31’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
After crossing the River Garigliano near Minturnae, Turner’s journey to Naples continued east towards Capua. The sketches on this page represent landscape views seen from the road. The upper vista represents the Plain of Sessa with the distant Aurunci mountains, whilst the lower study represents the town of Sessa Aurunca. Both compositions spill over onto the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 31 verso (D15616; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 30a).

Nicola Moorby
April 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘The Aurunci Mountains and the Plain of Sessa; and a View of Sessa Aurunca 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2010, 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-the-aurunci-mountains-and-the-plain-of-sessa-and-a-view-of-r1138079, accessed 29 April 2025.