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 View of Menton, from the North 1828

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of Menton, from the North’ 1828
Folio 25 Recto:
View of Menton, from the North 1828
D21181
Turner Bequest CCXXXI 25
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 174 mm
Inscribed in red ink ‘25’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXI 25’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch, with the page turned horizontally, depicts the seaside town of Menton, situated to the east of Monaco, very close to the present-day Franco-Italian border.1 The view is taken from the Ligurian road to the north-east of Menton, looking south-west towards the heart of the old town with the Basilique St-Michel dominant in the centre. Despite the simplicity of Turner’s draughtsmanship, the scene effectively captures a sense of the tranquillity of this part of the coast, with the sea gently lapping the shore in the foreground, and figures promenading along the beach.
A closer study recording the Baroque façade of the Basilica can be found on folio 18 recto (D21167), while for further distant sketches of Menton see folios 27 recto and verso (D21184–D21185).
1
Guillaud, Alfrey, Wilton and others 1981, p.286, and Roland Courtot, ‘Les Carnets de William Turner: Recherches d’identification et de localisation des dessins’, unpublished research notes, Université de Provence à Aix, April 2008, p.5, as ‘Menton’ (shared with former Tate cataloguer Nicola Moorby in email correspondence at that date).
Verso:
Blank

Nicola Moorby
March 2017

Revised by Hannah Kaspar
November 2024

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘View of Menton, from the North 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/view-of-menton-from-the-north-r1209859, accessed 20 April 2025.