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 and Cap Ferrat, from the North-West 1828

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Villefranche-sur-Mer and Cap Ferrat, from the North-West’ 1828
Folio 14 Recto:
Villefranche-sur-Mer and Cap Ferrat, from the North-West 1828
D21159
Turner Bequest CCXXXI 14
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 174 mm
Inscribed in red ink ‘14’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXI 14’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner made several sketches in and around the coastal harbour town of Villefranche-sur-Mer. This prospect, with the page turned horizontally, records the view from the Nice road to the north-west of the town, looking south-east across the bay towards Cap Ferrat with the lighthouse situated at the tip.1 Visible in the centre foreground are the walls of the Citadelle St-Elme, while to the left is the church of St Michel. A similar vista from the terrace of the citadel can be found on folio 13 recto (D21157), and there is also a variant view from a location further east on the same road on the verso (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See Roland Courtot, ‘Les Carnets de William Turner: Recherches d’identification et de localisation des dessins’, unpublished research notes, Université de Provence à Aix, April 2008, p.3, as ‘Villefranche-sur-mer’ (shared with former Tate cataloguer Nicola Moorby in email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, ‘Villefranche-sur-Mer and Cap Ferrat, from the North-West 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-and-cap-ferrat-from-the-north-west-r1209837, accessed 15 April 2025.