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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > First Italian Tour 1819-20 > Naples: Rome. C. Studies Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Bay of Naples from Posillipo, with the Palazzo Donn'Anna 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Bay of Naples from Posillipo, with the Palazzo Donn'Anna’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 7 Recto:
Bay of Naples from Posillipo, with the Palazzo Donn’Anna 1819
D16094
Turner Bequest CLXXXVII 7
Pencil and traces of watercolour on white wove paper, 255 x 403 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘4’ bottom right, descending right-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXVII 7’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
To the west of Naples lies the steep coastline of Posillipo, an area of outstanding natural beauty which since Roman times had been a popular residential district and resort. This sketch depicts a sweeping view of the city as seen from Posillipo. On the hill in the centre of the composition are Castel Sant’Elmo and the semi-circular bay curves round to the Castel dell’Ovo on the far right-hand side with the lower slopes of Vesuvius beyond. Turner’s location appears to be just west of the Palazzo Donn’Anna (also historically known as Queen Joanna’s palace), a famous seventeenth-century ruin which can be seen in central foreground. His viewpoint is the Via Posillipo, a new road built during the early nineteenth century which followed the line of the steep tufa cliffs rising above the shore. Some of the arches supporting a section of the road can be seen on the left-hand edge of the composition. A similar prospect looking north-east towards the city can be found on another sheet within this sketchbook (Tate D16107; Turner Bequest CLXXXVII 19), as well as in the Naples, Paestum, Rome sketchbook (Tate D15920; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 8).
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Nicola Moorby
April 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Bay of Naples from Posillipo, with the Palazzo Donn’Anna 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-bay-of-naples-from-posillipo-with-the-palazzo-donnanna-r1132353, accessed 26 December 2024.