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

The Turner scholar C.F. Bell annotated Finberg’s 1909 Inventory entry (‘Riva degli Schiavone’): ‘From the Ponte della Veneta Marina’.1 In 1857, John Ruskin had described the subject as the Riva ‘with the Bridge over the Rio dell’ Arsenale’.2 Elsewhere, Finberg suggested: ‘(The Bridge on the right may be the Ponte della Cà di Dio.)’3 These are three consecutive bridges near the Arsenale east of the Riva degli Schiavoni, each a little to the west of the next as given here, and similar enough to make it unclear whether Turner intended to depict one in particular towards the right.4

There are similar prospects in Tate D32157–D32158 (Turner Bequest CCCXVI 20, 21); the present view may be from slightly further off, while sharing a striped awning with the second,5 a rather more hectic composition both in terms of its colouring and the busily populated foreground. Compare a vigorous pencil sketch of a similar waterfront view, including an awning, in the contemporary Venice and Botzen D31844 (CCCXIII 28).

Ian Warrell described the colour studies as among those likely derived from Canaletto’s panoramic Bacino compositions.6 He has noted John 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,7 to which Warrell added D32167 and D32168 (CCCXVI 30, 31),8 linked by ‘the brilliant sunshine refracted by the surface of the Bacino’.9

The distant blue-violet silhouettes of Santa Maria della Salute, west across the Canale di San Marco and the Bacino on the left, and the campanile of San Marco (St Mark’s) suggest strong, hazy afternoon light. In 1857 Ruskin idiosyncratically described the effect as ‘the first twilight ... which immediately precedes the sunset’ (whereas the ‘“second” twilight, a peculiar flush, like a faint reflection of the sunset, ... succeeds the first twilight, after some minutes’).10 Whether Turner intended or even considered such a subjective refinement seems perhaps unlikely; for a supposed ‘second twilight’, see Tate D32161 (Turner Bequest CCCXVI 24). On a more empirical point, Ruskin observed:

See also Ruskin’s comments on the gondolier in D32160; Warrell has called him ‘right to draw attention to the impact made on the composition by the prow of the gondola. ... Turner sometimes renders these boats in an incomplete manner, so that it is not always obvious what he has depicted. For example, the canopy of a gondola floats truncated in the background of one view, before disappearing under a bridge’ (D32167 (CCCXVI 30).12

Technical notes:

The paper towards the bottom right is largely bare, with the gondolas and various waterfront details deftly ‘drawn’ in strokes of dilute black.

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

Verso:

Blank; inscribed in pencil ‘58’ top left and ‘19’ bottom left, upside down; stamped in black ‘CCCXVI – 22’ over Turner Bequest monogram.