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 Cannaregio Canal, Venice, with the Ponte dei Tre Archi and the Campanile of San Giobbe 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Cannaregio Canal, Venice, with the Ponte dei Tre Archi and the Campanile of San Giobbe’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 9 Verso:
The Cannaregio Canal, Venice, with the Ponte dei Tre Archi and the Campanile of San Giobbe 1840
D31294
Turner Bequest CCCX 9a
Pencil on cream wove paper, 126 x 198 mm
Partial watermark ‘J. Wha’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘4’ and ‘2’ towards centre left, on building
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally. Looking south-east, the Ponte dei Tre Archi, as identified by Finberg,1 crosses the Cannaregio canal near the campanile of the church of San Giobbe. Turner had made a more precise study of the same scene in the 1819 Milan to Venice sketchbook (Tate D14479; Turner Bequest CCLXV 86). A detail of a single bay of windows and a balcony, typical of the houses on the left of the bridge, appears towards the top left. There may be a smaller study of the bridge in the contemporary Venice and Botzen sketchbook (Tate D31896; Turner Bequest CCCXIII 54).
This is the first of a short sequence of Cannaregio subjects (folios 9 verso–12 recto; D31296–D31299), after which Turner travelled south along the Grand Canal. As noted in the sketchbook’s Introduction, the Venice views on its early pages are intermingled with German sketches from his return journey.

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
See Finberg 1930, p.172.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Cannaregio Canal, Venice, with the Ponte dei Tre Archi and the Campanile of San Giobbe 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-cannaregio-canal-venice-with-the-ponte-dei-tre-archi-and-r1196084, accessed 17 July 2024.