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 > Marseilles to Genoa Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Ventimiglia from the River Roia, Looking West 1828

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Ventimiglia from the River Roia, Looking West’ 1828
Folio 34 Recto:
Ventimiglia from the River Roia, Looking West 1828
D21197
Turner Bequest CCXXXI 34
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 174 mm
Inscribed in red ink ‘34’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXI 34’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The geographer and Turner researcher Roland Courtot has identified this sketch, with the page turned horizontally, as a view of the old town of Ventimiglia.1 Turner appears to have been positioned to the north on the left bank of the River Roia, near the end of the bridge, looking west towards the medieval old town (known as Ventimiglia Alta due to its elevated situation). The fortified walls follow the line of the slope down towards the river and across the foreground while visible in the centre of the composition is the church of San Michele, with its Romanesque tower. Immediately beyond in the background can be seen the Forte San Paolo, and surmounting the crest of the hill on the right is the ruined Castel d’Appio.
Related studies of the town from a similar viewpoint can be found on folios 33 verso, 34 verso and 35 recto and verso (D21196, D21198, D21199–D21200). For further sketches of Ventimiglia see folios 30 verso–33 recto (D21190–D21195). See also the Coast of Genoa sketchbook from 1838, when Turner revisited this location (Tate D21283; Turner Bequest CCXXXII 7).
1
Roland Courtot, ‘Les Carnets de William Turner: Recherches d’identification et de localisation des dessins’, unpublished research notes, Université de Provence à Aix, April 2008, p.5, as ‘Ventimiglia’ (shared with former Tate cataloguer Nicola Moorby in email correspondence at that date).
Technical notes:
The left-hand part of the bottom (outer) edge falls slightly short of the trimmed fore edge, and is apparently part of the unfinished edge of the original sheet folded to form the gathering.

Nicola Moorby
March 2017

Revised by Hannah Kaspar
November 2024

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Ventimiglia from the River Roia, Looking West 1828’, catalogue entry, March 2017, revised by Hannah Kaspar, 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/ventimiglia-from-the-river-roia-looking-west-r1209875, accessed 27 April 2025.