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

This relatively slight but confident chiaroscuro tonal study on grey paper is pictorially compressed to include a wide-ranging view from the Canale della Giudecca, looking south-east to the church of the Redentore on the Isola della Giudecca waterfront on the right; compare a more conventional contemporary pencil and wash study on white paper (Tate D32141; Turner Bequest CCCXVI 4).

The Zitelle church is apparently to the left of the Redentore towards the centre, while a white stroke beyond possibly indicates the front of San Giorgio Maggiore across the Bacino to the north-west, with what seems to be a schematic representation of the domes and twin campanili of the Salute towards the left to the north-north-east. All are aligned as seen in the large and elaborate oil painting of the Depositing of John Bellini’s Three Pictures in la Chiesa Redentore, Venice, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1841 (private collection; engraved in 1858: Tate impression T05192),1 where the water is filled with boats and a host of historical figures; Ian Warrell has suggested that the Canaletto-like painting was ‘based’ on this ‘essentially monochrome study’.2

Andrew Wilton has speculated of the numerous works on such paper now generally associated with 1840 (see the technical notes below): ‘Although it is possible that they were done at different times during Turner’s travels, it seems more probable that they were worked up as a sequence or series from notes or from memory after Turner had returned to England ... If so, it is possible that some of the other Venetian views, which have features in common with these, particularly in respect of colour, may have been produced in England.’3

Whether this sheet was painted on the spot, in Turner’s Hotel Europa room during the visit, or back in London as a direct study for the painting remains a moot point. The first eventuality seems least likely,4 but the second is a possibility as other Venice subjects of various types are on comparable sheets (see the technical notes below), including D32184, D32200 and D32201 (CCCXVII 5, 15, 16) in the present grouping. See also the Introduction to the parallel subsection of grey paper views of potentially less certain date, some of which relate compositionally to pre-1840 paintings (D32205–D32210; Turner Bequest CCCXVII 20–25).

Technical notes:

Scattered flecks of black towards right may be adventitious pigment, possibly from an oil painting session with this work to hand for reference (see the main entry above).

This is one of numerous 1840 Venice works Ian Warrell has noted as being on ‘Bally, Ellen and Steart grey paper’ which Turner had also used on his Continental tour of 1833, including Venice, and therefore ‘the dating of some of these sheets in uncertain’ (see in particular Tate D32205–D32210; Turner Bequest CCCXVII 20–25); the following ‘seem to arise from the later visit’:1 Tate D32180–D32181, D32183–D32184, D32200–D32201, D32203–D32204, D32212, D32215, D32217 (Turner Bequest CCCXVII 1, 2, 4, 5, 15, 16, 18, 19, 27–30, 32);2 see also Venice: San Giorgio Maggiore and the Zitelle from the Giudecca (currently untraced)3 and The Doge’s Palace from the Bacino (private collection),4 and two further ‘half-size sheets’:5 Tate D33883 (Turner Bequest CCCXLI 183), and Shipping with Buildings, ?Venice (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge).6

Verso:

Blank; inscribed in pencil ‘16’ below centre, descending vertically; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram over ‘CCCXVII – 4’ bottom left; inscribed in pencil ‘D32183’ and ‘CCCXVII.4’ bottom right.

There is brown staining or offsetting to the lower half.