Joseph Mallord William Turner Venice across the Bacino from around San Biagio, towards Sunset, with Santa Maria della Salute and the Campanile of San Marco (St Mark's) in the Distance 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
Venice across the Bacino from around San Biagio, towards Sunset, with Santa Maria della Salute and the Campanile of San Marco (St Mark's) in the Distance
1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Venice across the Bacino from around San Biagio, towards Sunset, with Santa Maria della Salute and the Campanile of San Marco (St Mark’s) in the Distance 1840
D32158
Turner Bequest CCCXVI 21
Turner Bequest CCCXVI 21
Watercolour on white wove paper, 244 x 304 mm
Watermark ‘C Ansell | 1828’
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCXVI 21’ bottom right
Watermark ‘C Ansell | 1828’
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCXVI 21’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1904
National Gallery, London, various dates to at least 1904 (56, as ‘Venice: Riva degli Schiavoni, from near the Public Gardens’).
1947
Turner 1775–1851: Tentoonstelling in het Stedelijk Museum te Amsterdam georganiseerd door de Tate Gallery voor de British Council, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam 1947 (63, as ‘Venetië, de Riva degli Schiavoni gezien vanaf de Riva di San Biagio, naar het Westen’, 1839–40).
1947
William Turner 1775–1851: Die Ausstellung wurde von der Tate Gallery für den British Council organisiert, Berner Kunstmuseum, Bern, December 1947–February 1948 (63, as ‘Ansicht aus Venedig; die Riva degli Schiavoni von der Riva di S. Biagio aus; Blick nach Westen’, 1839–40).
1948
Turner 1775–1851: Tentoonstelling van schilderijen ingericht door de Tate Gallery voor The British Council in het Ministerie van Openbaar Onderwijs van Belgie, Palais voor Schone Kunst, Brussels and Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Liège, March–April 1948 (63, as ‘Venetië, de Riva degli Schiavoni gezien vanaf de Riva di San Biagio, naar het Westen’, 1839–40).
1948
Turner 1775–1851: Exposition de peintures organisée par la Tate Gallery pour le British Council, Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, ?March 1948 (63, as ‘Venise: La Riva degli Schiavoni, de la Riva San Biagio: cote ouest’, 1839–40).
1951
Aquarelle aus dem Turner-Nachlass im Britischen Museum veranstaltet vom British Council, Düsseldorf, Wiesbaden, Mannheim, Munich, Nuremberg: September or October 1950–March 1951, and September 1951–April 1952 (22, as ‘Venedig, Blick auf die Riva degli Schiavoni von der Riva di San Biagio, Westswite’, 1839–40).
1961
J.W.M. [sic] Turner 1775–1851: Watercolours: On Loan to the National Gallery of Victoria on the Occasion of its Centenary from the Turner Bequest by Courtesy of the Trustees and Director of the British Museum, London, with the Assistance of the British Council, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, September–October 1961, National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, October–November 1961 (26, as ‘Venice: The Riva degli Schiavoni from the Riva San Biagio, Looking West’, 1839–40, reproduced).
1963
Turner Watercolors from The British Museum: A Loan Exhibition Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, September–October 1963, Museum of Fine Arts of Houston, Texas, November 1963, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, December 1963–January 1964, Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, January–March 1964, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, March–April 1964, Brooklyn Museum, New York, May 1964, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, June–July 1964 (62, as ‘Venice, The Riva degli Schiavoni, from near the Public Gardens’, 1840).
1970
Turner: Watercolours Lent by the British Museum, Musée Provisoire d’Art Moderne, Brussels, November 1970–January 1971 (79, as ‘Riva degli Schiavoni, Venise’, 1840).
1971
10th Anniversary Exhibition 1961–1971: Turner: Major Loan Collection: Theme – Water: Lakes, Streams, Rivers & Seas: Late Watercolours by Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum: Also Other Artists Sharing a Common Theme, Arts Centre, Folkestone, December 1971–January 1972 (8, as ‘Riva degli Schiavoni, from near the Public Gardens’).
1975
Turner in the British Museum: Drawings and Watercolours, Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, London, May 1975–February 1976 (238, as ‘Venice: The Riva degli Schiavoni from near the Public Gardens’, 1840, reproduced).
1995
Through Switzerland with Turner: Ruskin’s First Selection from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, February–May 1995 (56, as ‘Riva dei Schiavoni. From the Fondamenta (Venice: The Riva degli Schiavoni, from near S. Biagio)’, 1840, reproduced in colour).
2003
Turner and Venice, Tate Britain, London, October 2003–January 2004, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, February–May 2004, Museo Correr, Venice, September 2004–January 2005, Fundació ”la Caixa”, Barcelona, March–June 2005 (170, as ‘Looking across the Bacino di San Marco at Sunset, from near San Biagio’, 1840, reproduced in colour).
References
1904
E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn eds., Library Edition: The Works of John Ruskin: Volume XIII: Turner: The Harbours of England; Catalogues and Notes, London 1904, pp.211, 373, 611 no.56, as ‘Venice: Riva degli Schiavoni, from near the Public Gardens’.
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.1019, CCCXVI 21, as ‘Riva degli Schiavone, from near the Public Gardens. On back is written by Turner – “Beppo Club.” Exhibited Drawings, No.56, N.G.’.
1839
Alexander J. Finberg, Turner’s Sketches and Drawings, London 1910, p.132, pl.LXXX, as ‘Riva degli Schiavone [sic], from near the Public Gardens’, c.1839.
1930
A.J. Finberg, In Venice with Turner, London 1930, p.174, as ‘The Riva degli Schiavoni, from near the Public Gardens’, 1840.
1947
[Humphrey Brooke], Turner 1775–1851: Tentoonstelling in het Stedelijk Museum te Amsterdam georganiseerd door de Tate Gallery voor de British Council, exhibition catalogue, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam 1947, p.28 no.63, as ‘Venetië, de Riva degli Schiavoni gezien vanaf de Riva di San Biagio, naar het Westen’, 1839–40.
1947
[Humphrey Brooke], William Turner 1775–1851: Die Ausstellung wurde von der Tate Gallery für den British Council organisiert, exhibition catalogue, Berner Kunstmuseum, Bern 1947, p.23 no.63, as ‘Ansicht aus Venedig; die Riva degli Schiavoni von der Riva di S. Biagio aus; Blick nach Westen’, 1839–40.
1948
[Humphrey Brooke], Turner 1775–1851: Tentoonstelling van schilderijen ingericht door de Tate Gallery voor The British Council in het Ministerie van Openbaar Onderwijs van Belgie, exhibition catalogue, Palais voor Schone Kunst, Brussels and Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Liège (‘Luik’) 1948, p.[21] no.63, as ‘Venetië, de Riva degli Schiavoni gezien vanaf de Riva di San Biagio, naar het Westen’, 1839–40.
1948
[Humphrey Brooke], Turner 1775–1851: Exposition de peintures organisée par la Tate Gallery pour le British Council, exhibition catalogue, Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris 1948, p.23 no.63, as ‘Venise: La Riva degli Schiavoni, de la Riva San Biagio: cote ouest’, 1839–40.
1950
J. Isaacs, Aquarelle aus dem Turner-Nachlass im Britischen Museum veranstaltet vom British Council, exhibition British Council German tour, 1950, p.14 no.22, as ‘Venedig, Blick auf die Riva degli Schiavoni von der Riva di San Biagio, Westswite’, 1839–40.
1961
J. Isaacs, J.W.M. [sic] Turner 1775–1851: Watercolours: On Loan to the National Gallery of Victoria on the Occasion of its Centenary from the Turner Bequest by Courtesy of the Trustees and Director of the British Museum, London, with the Assistance of the British Council, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 1961, reproduced p.21, p.31 no.26, as ‘Venice: The Riva degli Schiavoni from the Riva San Biagio, Looking West’, 1839–40.
1963
Edward Croft-Murray, Turner Watercolors from The British Museum: A Loan Exhibition Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC 1963, p.21 no.62, as ‘Venice, The Riva degli Schiavoni, from near the Public Gardens’, 1840.
1970
Luke Herrmann, Turner: Watercolours Lent by the British Museum, exhibition catalogue, Musée Provisoire d’Art Moderne, Brussels 1970, p.23 no.79, as ‘Riva degli Schiavoni, Venise’, 1840.
1971
John Eveleigh, 10th Anniversary Exhibition 1961–1971: Turner: Major Loan Collection: Theme – Water: Lakes, Streams, Rivers & Seas: Late Watercolours by Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum: Also Other Artists Sharing a Common Theme, exhibition catalogue, Arts Centre, Folkestone 1971, p.[6] no.8, as ‘Riva degli Schiavoni, from near the Public Gardens’.
1975
Andrew Wilton, Turner in the British Museum: Drawings and Watercolours, exhibition catalogue, Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, London 1975, p.142 no.238, as ‘Venice: The Riva degli Schiavoni from near the Public Gardens’, 1840, reproduced.
1977
Andrew Wilton, Turner Watercolors: An Exhibition of Works Loaned by The Trustees of the British Museum, exhibition catalogue, Cleveland Museum of Art 1977, p.81 under no.62.
1840
Lindsay Stainton, Turner’s Venice, London 1985, p.59 no.65, as ‘The Riva degli Schiavoni, from near S. Biagio ... Inscribed verso: Beppo Club’, ?1840, pl.65 (colour).
1995
Ian Warrell, Through Switzerland with Turner: Ruskin’s First Selection from the Turner Bequest, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1995, pp.100 under no.55, 101 no.56, as ‘Riva dei Schiavoni. From the Fondamenta (Venice: The Riva degli Schiavoni, from near S. Biagio)’ ... Verso inscribed in pencil: “[?Belike Club]”’, 1840, reproduced in colour.
1995
Andrew Wilton, Venise: Aquarelles de Turner, Paris 1995, reproduced in colour p.[33] (cropped), as ‘La Riva degli Schiavoni vue de San Biagio’.
2003
Ian Warrell in Warrell, David Laven, Jan Morris and others, Turner and Venice, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, London 2003, pp.24, 47, 227, 230, 259, 273 no.170, as ‘Looking across the Bacino di San Marco at Sunset, from near San Biagio’, 1840, fig.250 (colour).
2005
Ian Warrell, Cecilia Powell and David Laven, Turner i Venècia, exhibition catalogue, Fundació ”la Caixa”, Barcelona 2005, p.172 no.104, as ‘Posta de sol sobre el Bacino de San Marco, de prop de San Biagio’, 1840, reproduced in colour.
Finberg later annotated his 1909 Inventory entry (‘Riva degli Schiavone, from near the Public Gardens’), crossing out ‘Public Gardens’ in favour of ‘San Biagio’,1 as did the Turner scholar C.F. Bell in his own copy.2 The view is west from the Canale di San Marco towards the Bacino, along the slow curve of the Riva degli Schiavoni waterfront. Compare Tate D32157 (Turner Bequest CCCXVI 20), a similar subject, perhaps from a little further west. The domes of Santa Maria della Salute are shown on the left, silhouetted but almost lost in the glare of the sun setting over the entrance to the Grand Canal. The next feature appears to be a ghostly secondary version of the campanile of San Marco (St Mark’s), seemingly too prominent to represent one of the other towers beyond it; the domes of the Basilica are outlined towards the centre, to the right of the more clearly defined version.
Across the area of darker clouds at the centre right is a faint network of brown lines, possibly washed out, evoking the profile of a tall building towards the foreground but superseded by the forceful outlines of waterfront structures, suggesting Turner was developing the composition even as he worked, introducing striped awnings and groups of figures in the foreground. Ian Warrell noted that the ‘pen work in this study [see the technical notes below] seems only partly finished; the transition between foreground and distance is too sudden, interrupting the recessions suggested in the washes.’ He gave contemporary watercolour Venice: The Riva degli Schiavoni (Ashmolean Museum)3 as a more harmonious ‘example of the way Turner could provide greater detail by using a network of pen lines, while still preserving a unified design’.4 In this case, Turner’s quest for ‘greater substance, through the addition of coloured outlines, seems to work against the subtle effect he sought to recreate, which perhaps explains why in this instance he took his draughtsmanship no further’.5
Despite these provisional aspects, in 1857 John Ruskin. describing the viewpoint as ‘the Fondamenta Ca’ di Dio’ (just west of the Riva San Biagio and its church), observed:
This sketch is very beautiful, and to be noted especially for the way the two gleams of light on the water are left [towards the bottom left], portions of an under colour, which is prepared to receive the cool darker tint above, and to shine through it waveringly, while these fragments of it are left in luminous opposition.
It is to the painter’s decisive use of these preparatory tints, and his perfect knowledge of the result which the superimposed tint is to produce, that his colouring owes a great part of its effect.6
Warrell developed this point: ‘The design was conceived around the narrowing funnel of light on the left, which he intensified with several flashes of bright, unpainted white paper to suggest the flicker of momentary pools of light on the undulating water.’7 He has described the present study as among those likely derived from Canaletto’s panoramic Bacino compositions,8 and noted Ruskin’s grouping of ‘a series of views along the rambling Riva degli Schiavoni, which suggests that Turner explored its length by foot, as well as from the water’: Tate D32120 (Turner Bequest CCCXV 4) from the contemporary Grand Canal and Giudecca sketchbook, and D32157–D32160 (CCCXVI 20–23) in the present grouping,9 to which Warrell added D32167 and D32168 (CCCXVI 30, 31),10 linked by ‘the brilliant sunshine refracted by the surface of the Bacino’,11 noting that the canopy in the present work has a counterpart in D32159.12 Compare a vigorous pencil sketch of a similar waterfront view, including an awning, in the contemporary Venice and Botzen D31844 (CCCXIII 28).
Turner’s note ‘Beppo Club’ on the verso is one of three similar inscriptions on the backs of 1840 Venice sheets (see also under Tate D32173, D40176; Turner Bequest CCCXVI 36, 37 verso). Ian Warrell has related them to Lord Byron’s 1818 poem Beppo: An Italian Story, a ‘playful evocation of the licentiousness of the Venetian carnival’,13 and suggested that in this case ‘it may well be possible to detect [such] behaviour ... in the pair of figures seated beneath the awning’14 towards the bottom right.
Undated MS note by Finberg (died 1939) in interleaved copy of Finberg 1909, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain, II, p.1019.
Undated MS note by Bell (died 1966) in copy of Finberg 1909, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain, II, p.1019.
Technical notes:
This is one of numerous 1840 Venice works Ian Warrell has noted as on sheets of ‘white paper produced [under the name] Charles Ansell,1 each measuring around 24 x 30 cm, several watermarked with the date “1828”’:2 Tate D32138–D32139, D32141–D32143, D32145–D32147, D32154–D32163, D32167–D32168, D32170–D32177, D35980, D36190 (Turner Bequest CCCXVI 1, 2, 4–6, 8–10, 17–26, 30, 31, 33–40, CCCLXIV 137, 332). Warrell has also observed that The Doge’s Palace and Piazzetta, Venice (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin)3 and Venice: The New Moon (currently untraced)4 ‘may belong to this group’.5
Albeit Peter Bower, Turner’s Later Papers: A Study of the Manufacture, Selection and Use of his Drawing Papers 1820–1851, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1999, p.81, notes that the Muggeridge family had taken over after 1820, still using the ‘C Ansell’ watermark.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Beppo Club’ top right (see discussion above); inscribed in pencil ‘57’ top left, ‘B’ and ‘18’ towards bottom left, upside down, and ‘A’ bottom left; stamped in black ‘CCCXV – 21’ over Turner Bequest monogram below centre, inscribed in pencil ‘CCCXVI.21’ between the two elements.
Matthew Imms
July 2018
How to cite
Matthew Imms, ‘Venice across the Bacino from around San Biagio, towards Sunset, with Santa Maria della Salute and the Campanile of San Marco (St Mark’s) in the Distance 1840 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2018, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2019, https://www