Joseph Mallord William Turner The East End of the Forum, Rome; also Sketches of Aqueducts, possibly near Porta Furba 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 59 Recto:
The East End of the Forum, Rome; also Sketches of Aqueducts, possibly near Porta Furba 1819
D15407
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 58
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 58
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘M Soracte’ top centre, ‘The light seen thro the arch Aquae’ | [?Porta]’ and ‘Effect of white clouds on the M | Blue’ and ‘Wilson Campagna’ all underneath sketches in centre of page and ‘Porta Furba’ underneath bottom sketch, portrait format
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘58’ top right and ‘301’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXII 58’ bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘58’ top right and ‘301’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXII 58’ 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.538, as ‘Remains of Temple of Saturn, with San Lorenzo, &tc., in distance; also a number of small sketches of the Claudian Aqueduct’.
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Powell, ‘Turner on Classic Ground: His Visits to Central and Southern Italy and Related Paintings and Drawings’, unpublished Ph.D thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London 1984, pp.195 note 107, 256 note 106.
1987
Cecilia Powell, Turner in the South: Rome, Naples, Florence, New Haven and London 1987, pp.[88] note 79, 125 note 65, 176 note 18.
Turner thoroughly explored the Roman Forum (Campo Vaccino) and made numerous sketches from various angles. This view of the eastern end from the north-west is continued from the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 58 verso (D15406; Turner Bequest CLXXXII 57a). It shows the campanile of Santa Francesca Romana with the arches of the Colosseum beyond. On the right can be seen the Arch of Titus which in Turner’s day was not fully excavated and had accretions on either side. For a general discussion of the Forum see folio 32 (D15355).
The rest of the page contains several rapidly drawn landscape views running horizontally across with the sketchbook held in portrait format. These sketches appear to show ruins and monuments seen from a distance and Turner’s written notes beneath suggests that these could include the Roman remains of the Aqua Claudia and the sixteenth-century Aqua Felix near ‘Porta Furba’, a gate a couple of miles south-east from the Porta Maggiore where the two aqueducts once met. He also indicates the outline of distant ‘Mount Soracte’ (also known as Soratte), a mountain ridge to the north of Rome. Other inscriptions record atmospheric effects. As was often the case the Roman Campagna reminded him of the work of the eighteenth-century Welsh landscape painter, Richard Wilson (1713–1782), see folio 26 verso (D15344).
Some of the smaller landscape sketches overlap with the horizontal view of the Forum. The latter was probably the later addition, drawn as an extension to the vista on the previous page.
Nicola Moorby
May 2008
How to cite
Nicola Moorby, ‘The East End of the Forum, Rome; also Sketches of Aqueducts, possibly near Porta Furba 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2008, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www