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 View of Cap Ferrat, from the Terrace of the Citadelle St-Elme in Villefranche-sur-Mer 1828

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of Cap Ferrat, from the Terrace of the Citadelle St-Elme in Villefranche-sur-Mer’ 1828
Folio 13 Recto:
View of Cap Ferrat, from the Terrace of the Citadelle St-Elme in Villefranche-sur-Mer 1828
D21157
Turner Bequest CCXXXI 13
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 174 mm
Inscribed in red ink ‘13’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXI 13’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner made several sketches in and around Villefranche-sur-Mer, a harbour town on the south coast of France between Nice and Monaco. This study, with the page turned horizontally, depicts the view looking south-east from the terrace of the sixteenth-century Citadelle St-Elme.1 Visible along the horizon to the left is the tip of Cap Ferrat with its lighthouse. A variant view from the citadel can be found on folio 10 verso (D21152), while a similar prospect from a slightly higher viewpoint appears on folio 14 recto (D21159).
For other sketches of Villefranche-sur-Mer see folios 11 recto–12 verso and 13 verso–14 verso (D21153–D21156, D21158–D21160).

Nicola Moorby
March 2017

Revised by Hannah Kaspar
November 2024

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See Roland Courtot, ‘Les Carnets de William Turner: Recherches d’identification et de localisation des dessins’, unpublished research notes, Université de Provence à Aix, April 2008, p.3, as ‘Villefranche-sur-mer’ (shared with former Tate cataloguer Nicola Moorby in email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

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘View of Cap Ferrat, from the Terrace of the Citadelle St-Elme in Villefranche-sur-Mer 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/view-of-cap-ferrat-from-the-terrace-of-the-citadelle-st-elme-in-villefranche-sur-mer-r1209835, accessed 15 April 2025.