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

The geographer and Turner researcher Roland Courtot has identified Turin as the subject of these slight views, executed with the sketchbook turned horizontally.1 Turner arrived in the city from Milan in around mid-January 1829, before journeying west towards the Franco-Italian Alps.

As noted by Courtot, Turner’s vantage point for the lower study was from the right bank of the River Po, near the Monte dei Cappuccini hill. Looking north-west, Turner outlined the five arches of the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele I, constructed from 1810. On the horizon are the distant Alps. The upper study depicts the Church of Santa Maria del Monte atop the Monte dei Cappuccini. Turner’s viewpoint appears to be facing south-east from the foot of the hill.

This is one of several depictions of Turin dispersed throughout the sketchbook, several of which were composed from the Monte dei Cappuccini: see under folio 7 recto (D21676) for a list of relevant works. Turner had previously visited Turin in 1819 during the outward leg of his first Italian tour: for further commentary and a list of relevant works, see Nicola Moorby’s entry for the Turin, Como, Lugarno, Maggiore sketchbook in the present catalogue (Tate D14166; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 11).