Joseph Mallord William Turner Venice (The Rialto - Moonlight), for Rogers's 'Poems' c.1830-2
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Venice (The Rialto – Moonlight), for Rogers’s ‘Poems’ circa 1830–2
D27713
Turner Bequest CCLXXX 196
Turner Bequest CCLXXX 196
Watercolour, approximately 130 x 140 mm on white wove paper, 239 x 305 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXX 196’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXX 196’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1904
National Gallery, London, various dates to at least 1904 (394).
1974
Turner 1775–1851, Royal Academy, London, November 1974–March 1975 (281).
1976
J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Akvareller og Tegninger fra British Museum, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, February–May 1976 (37).
1998
Moonlight and Firelight: Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, July–November 1998 (no catalogue).
1976
William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit, Hamburger Kunsthalle, May–July 1976 (56, reproduced).
1983
J.M.W. Turner: Dibujos y acuarelas del Museo Británico, exhibition catalogue, Museo del Prado, Madrid, February–March 1983 (42, reproduced).
2003
Turner and Venice, Tate Britain, London, October 2003–January 2004, Kimbell Art Museum, Forth Worth, February–May 2004, Museo Correr, Venice, September 2004–January 2005, Fundació ”la Caixa”, Barcelona, March–June 2005 (63, reproduced in colour).
References
1903
E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn (eds.), Library Edition: The Works of John Ruskin: Volume I: Early Prose Writings 1834–1843, London 1903, pp.233, 244.
1904
E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn (eds.), Library Edition: The Works of John Ruskin: Volume XIII: Turner: The Harbours of England; Catalogues and Notes, London 1904, pp.380–1.
1906
E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn (eds.), Library Edition: The Works of John Ruskin: Volume XXI: The Ruskin Art Collection at Oxford, London 1906, p.214.
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings in the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.904, as ‘The Rialto, Venice’.
1966
Adele Holcomb, ‘J.M.W. Turner’s Illustrations to the Poets’, unpublished Ph.D thesis, University of California, Los Angeles 1966, pp.79, 81, 86, reproduced fig.33.
1974
Martin Butlin, Andrew Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, p.99 no.281.
1976
Werner Hofmann, Andrew Wilton, Siegmar Hosten and others, William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit, exhibition catalogue, Hamburger Kunsthalle 1976, p.126 no.56, reproduced.
1976
David Loshak and Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Akvareller og Tegninger fra British Museum, exhibition catalogue, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen 1976, no.37.
1979
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p.442 no.1190, reproduced.
1983
Lindsay Stainton and Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: Dibujos y acuarelas del Museo Británico, exhibition catalogue, Museo del Prado, Madrid 1983, p.61 no.42, reproduced.
1993
Jan Piggott, Turner’s Vignettes, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1993, p.97.
2003
Ian Warrell, David Laven, Jan Morris and others, Turner and Venice, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, London 2003, p.78 no.63, reproduced fig.67 (colour).
This vignette, Venice (The Rialto – Moonlight), was published in the 1834 edition of Rogers’s Poems to illustrate a poem entitled ‘Human Life’.1 It was engraved by William Miller,2 and designed to complement the following lines which Turner marked with pencil in the margin of his own copy of the 1827 edition of Poems (see Tate D36330; Turner Bequest CCCLXVI p.103):
Now the scene shifts to Venice – to a square
Glittering with light, all nations masking there,
With light reflected on the tremulous tide,
Where gondolas in gay confusion glide,
Answering the jest, the song on every side
(Poems, p.95)
Glittering with light, all nations masking there,
With light reflected on the tremulous tide,
Where gondolas in gay confusion glide,
Answering the jest, the song on every side
(Poems, p.95)
The Rialto Bridge was a well-known Venetian landmark and one that Turner had already sketched extensively during his 1819 tour of Italy (see the Milan to Venice sketchbook, Turner Bequest CLXXV). The composition of the view meanwhile, with a gondola floating along a shimmering canal is similar to that of another vignette illustration by Turner, The Bridge of Sighs circa 1830 (private collection), engraved by Edward Finden,3 and published in Byron’s Life and Works, (volume XI, 1832).4
W.G. Rawlinson, The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., vol.II, London 1913, no.386. There is one impression in Tate’s collection (T06645).
Verso:
Inscribed by ?the artist in pencil ‘High Holborn’ top left, descending left-hand edge. Also in unknown hands in pencil ‘NG’ top centre and ‘21’ upper centre and ‘29 b’ centre and ‘CCLXXX.196’ bottom. Also in red ink ‘029’ top right, inverted
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXX 196’ lower centre
Inscribed by ?the artist in pencil ‘High Holborn’ top left, descending left-hand edge. Also in unknown hands in pencil ‘NG’ top centre and ‘21’ upper centre and ‘29 b’ centre and ‘CCLXXX.196’ bottom. Also in red ink ‘029’ top right, inverted
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXX 196’ lower centre
Meredith Gamer
August 2006
How to cite
Meredith Gamer, ‘Venice (The Rialto – Moonlight), for Rogers’s ‘Poems’ c.1830–2 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2006, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www