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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Southern Germany, Austria and Venice ... > Venice up to Trento Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Landscapes with Pine Trees; the Walls of Castelfranco Veneto; ?the Villa Angarano, near Bassano del Grappa 1833

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Landscapes with Pine Trees; the Walls of Castelfranco Veneto; ?the Villa Angarano, near Bassano del Grappa’ 1833
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 5 Recto:
Landscapes with Pine Trees; the Walls of Castelfranco Veneto; ?the Villa Angarano, near Bassano del Grappa 1833
D31605
Turner Bequest CCCXII 5
Pencil on white laid paper, 203 x 109 mm
Inscribed by C.F. Bell in black ink ‘5’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCXII – 5’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The page was used vertically both ways. The most prominent element is a study of two stone pines, with their characteristic shallow umbrella-like canopies. Similar trees appear in two slight views the other way up below, with a backdrop of mountains in one. The setting was presumably the coastal plain inland from Venice, at the beginning of Turner’s homeward journey through the Alpine scenery looming on the horizon.
The third study, with castellated turrets, is one of a handful of sketches of Castelfranco Veneto at both ends of this book. Here, the western end of the fortified town’s south side is shown, with the tower at the south-west corner, as also seen on the verso (D31606), under which the other views are noted. The distant pedimented building to the right of the pine trees is possibly the Palladian Villa Angarano, near Bassano del Grappa (see folio 8 recto; D31611), although the casual sketch is too slight to make this more than a suggestion.

Matthew Imms
May 2019

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Landscapes with Pine Trees; the Walls of Castelfranco Veneto; ?the Villa Angarano, near Bassano del Grappa 1833 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2019, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-landscapes-with-pine-trees-the-walls-of-castelfranco-veneto-r1203803, accessed 05 July 2024.