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

This page contains two distinct sketches. On the left-hand side of the page is part of a landscape composition which continues on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 10 verso (D14163; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 9a). The view depicted is the town of Avigliana, looking west down the Val di Susa towards the Sacra di San Michele.

The second, smaller sketch can be found in the bottom right-hand corner of the page and was tentatively identified by Finberg as a view of Fort Exilles, to the west of Susa. In fact, as Federico Crimi first noted,1 it is also related to Avigliana, but in this instance depicts one of the two crater lakes which lie to the south-west of the town. The lakes, named the Lago Grande (Great Lake) and Lago Piccolo (Small Lake), are surrounded by hills and mountains and present a naturally picturesque subject for the artist. Further sketches can be found on folio 11 verso (D14165; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 10a). Turner would explore similar scenery in the hills to the south of Rome at Lake Albano and Lake Nemi (see the Albano, Nemi, Rome sketchbook, Tate, Turner Bequest CLXXXII).