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

The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally. Its viewpoint is a uncertain, as the depiction of the Pietà church towards the left, with its west-facing thermal window, might suggest the Riva degli Schiavoni quays from somewhere near the Hotel Danieli (Palazzo Dandolo), as used for the westward view on the recto (D31939); however, the apparently purposeful close alignment of the campanile, dome and pediment over the entrance front of San Giorgio Maggiore, across the Bacino to the south, suggests a more frontal view of that church, only obtainable from considerably further west around the mouth of the Grand Canal (compare folio 2 recto; D31930), from which Turner drew the waterfront prospect past the Giardini Reali on folio 8 recto opposite (D31941) in which the Pietà is visible in the distance from much the same angle.

It might be that the firmly rendered boats and quayside clutter of goods or gear were drawn along the Riva while Turner was making studies such as that on D31939, with the churches added with a lighter touch once he reached the Grand Canal, fortuitously creating a more pictorial composition by effectively continuing the view from D31941, where the pencil work is similarly slight. In any case, the main focus here is the moored boats, identified by Ian Warrell as a trabaccolo transport vessel with a smaller topo on its near side.1 For other studies in this sketchbook showing local shipping in isolation or particularly prominently in topographical views of the city, see under folio 2 verso (D31931),2 and for its general sequence, including Hardy George’s broad overview,3 see its Introduction.