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 > Genoa and Florence Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Harbour, with Lighthouse. Genoa 1828

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Harbour, with Lighthouse. Genoa’ 1828
Folio 14 Recto:
The Port of Genoa, with La Lanterna Lighthouse and Coastline to the West 1828
D21438
Turner Bequest CCXXXIII 14
Pencil on white lined wove paper, 96 x 144 mm
Inscribed in red ink ‘14’ (smudged) bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXIII – 14’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Dominating the right side of this page is La Lanterna, Genoa’s sixteenth-century lighthouse, which marks the western side of the port entrance. It remains the tallest lighthouse in the Mediterranean, its height emphasised by the promontory and fortifications at its base, which Turner has outlined here.1 Turner sketched the lighthouse from multiple angles in the present sketchbook: see also folios 12 recto, 13 recto, 15 verso and 16 verso (D21434, D21436, D21441, D21443).
Outlined to the left is the coastline west of Genoa, part of the Riviera di Ponente, which extends towards the town of Ventimiglia near the present-day French border. Turner’s viewpoint appears to be from an elevated position on the other side of the port, looking west.
For a general commentary on Turner’s first visit to Genoa in 1828, together with a list of relevant works in the sketchbook, see under folio 6 verso (D21423).
1
‘Lanterna’, Visit Genoa, accessed 2 May 2024, https://www.visitgenoa.it/en/node/22048; ‘La Lanterna’, Lanterna di Genova, accessed 2 May 2024, https://www.lanternadigenova.com/.
Technical notes:
The page is divided by a conspicuous horizontal crease, possibly a manufacturing fault.

Hannah Kaspar
November 2024

How to cite

Hannah Kaspar, ‘The Port of Genoa, with La Lanterna Lighthouse and Coastline to the West 1828’, 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/the-port-of-genoa-with-la-lanterna-lighthouse-and-coastline-to-the-west-r1209978, accessed 18 April 2025.