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

This panoramic vista of Rome continues onto folio 5 recto opposite (D14840), filling the full double-page spread of the sketchbook. Turner’s vantage point is from the Aventine Hill, which borders the River Tiber and lies south-west of the Forum and the Colosseum. Looking north-west across the river, which is populated with several small boats, he surveyed the buildings and rooftops of the Trastevere district in the middle distance. They include the riverside buildings along the Porto di Ripa Grande, near the ancient Porta Portese city gate, which are rendered with typical economy. Whereas the windows of the left bay, next to the tower, are clearly delineated, most of the façade to the right has been left blank. Deploying another time-saving device, Turner used numbers to note the repetition of the windows, exemplified here by the annotation ‘9’, used twice. The prominent dome on the horizon belongs to the Basilica of San Pietro in the Vatican.

As noted by Cecilia Powell, this work is among five pages in the present sketchbook depicting Rome from Mount Aventine (see also folios 5 recto–6 recto and 7 recto; D14840–D14843). Turner later drew inspiration from these pencil studies for his oil painting Rome, from Mount Aventine (private collection).1 Commissioned by his friend and patron Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro of Novar, the work was exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, in 1836.

Turner also produced a handful of studies of Rome in the Viterbo and Ronciglione sketchbook from the same tour (Tate D21809, D21824–D21826, D21829; Turner Bequest CCXXXVI 23, 32a–33a, 36). Turner’s relatively limited study of Rome in 1828–9 stands in stark contrast to his prolific effort in 1819–20; nine sketchbooks from this period contain views and studies relating to Rome and the surrounding campagna: see Nicola Moorby’s introduction to the ‘First Italian Tour 1819–20’ section of the present catalogue.