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 Villefranche-sur-Mer from the North 1828

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Villefranche-sur-Mer from the North’ 1828
Folio 12 Recto:
Villefranche-sur-Mer from the North 1828
D21155
Turner Bequest CCXXXI 12
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 174 mm
Inscribed in red ink ‘12’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXI 12’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains five distinct sketches. The main prospect, with the page turned horizontally, depicts a view of Villefranche-sur-Mer, a harbour town on the south coast of France between Nice and Monaco.1 The geographer and Turner researcher Roland Courtot has identified the viewpoint as the road to Ventimiglia leading north out of the town, looking south across the bay with the Darse (Old Harbour) and the Citadelle St-Elme near the shoreline to the left.2 Near the centre of the page are the arches of the Rue Obscure, a medieval passageway under the harbour front. At the centre of the composition is the Baroque church of Saint-Michel. Visible in the background is the fort of Mont Alban, situated at the summit of the hill.
Parallel with the bottom (outer) edge, with the page inverted relative to its foliation, are three thumbnail studies of views within Villefranche-sur-Mer, including from top to bottom: the arches of the Rue Obscure; one of the town’s narrow streets; and a distant view from the north of the bay including the church.3 Finally, on the far right, is a rough variant study of the main view, executed with the sketchbook turned vertically, and inverted relative to its foliation.
For further sketches of Villefranche-sur-Mer see folios 10 verso–11 verso and 12 verso–14 verso (D21152–D21154, D21156–D21160).

Nicola Moorby
March 2017

Revised by Hannah Kaspar
November 2024

1
Guillaud, Alfrey, Wilton and others 1981, p.286.
2
See Roland Courtot, ‘Les Carnets de William Turner: Recherches d’identification et de localisation des dessins’, unpublished research notes, Université de Provence à Aix, April 2008, p.3, as ‘Villefranche-sur-mer’ (shared with former Tate cataloguer Nicola Moorby in email correspondence at that date).
3
Guillaud, Alfrey, Wilton and others 1981, p.286.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Villefranche-sur-Mer 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/villefranche-sur-mer-from-the-north-r1209833, accessed 15 April 2025.