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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Second Italian Tour 1828-9 > Rome to Rimini Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Studies of Buildings, Belltowers and a Triumphal Arch 1828-9

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Studies of Buildings, Belltowers and a Triumphal Arch’ 1828-9
Folio 10 Recto:
Studies of Buildings, Belltowers and a Triumphal Arch 1828–9
D14849
Turner Bequest CLXXVIII 10
Pencil on white laid paper, 97 x 132 mm
Inscribed in red ink ‘10’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CLXXVIII – 10’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains several studies of buildings, the location of which remains to be identified. Whereas Finberg’s 1909 Inventory of the Bequest proposed ‘The Capitol’ in Rome,1 Cecilia Powell later cited this work among several studies of Bologna, Reggio Emilia or Piacenza.2 The studies were executed with the sketchbook rotated in different positions. In the lower section of the page, inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, is a triumphal arch with buildings to the right. Along the gutter, executed with the sketchbook turned vertically, is a study of buildings next to a tall belltower with an onion-shaped dome. Five variant profiles of belltowers fill the centre of the page, along with a cross at the centre. To the left is a faint view of a rolling landscape.

Hannah Kaspar
November 2024

1
Finberg 1909, I, p.524.
2
Powell 1984, p.343.

How to cite

Hannah Kaspar, ‘Studies of Buildings, Belltowers and a Triumphal Arch 1828–9’, catalogue entry, November 2024, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2025, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/studies-of-buildings-belltowers-and-a-triumphal-arch-r1210223, accessed 19 April 2025.