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

The studies on this page are inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation. Turner’s inscription ‘S^t Julien’ identifies the upper view as the monastic complex of San Giuliano in the eastern Albaro district of Genoa. Thought to date back to the thirteenth century, the abbey was founded by Franciscans and taken over by Benedictine monks in the early fourteenth century.1 With the establishment of Napoleonic rule, the monastery was closed and converted into a private home, as it would have remained at the time of Turner’s visit to Genoa in 1828. Towards the top right are two figures, possibly the same couple shown walking along a coastal path on the recto (D21448). Turner has presumably included details of their dress with the annotation ‘Fan and Veil’. The shaky appearance of these studies indicates that the artist was sketching while in motion, either from a moving carriage or a vessel out to sea.

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).