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 > Rome to Rimini Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Rome, from the Aventine Hill 1828-9

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Rome, from the Aventine Hill’ 1828-9
Folio 5 Recto:
Rome, from the Aventine Hill 1828–9
D14840
Turner Bequest CLXXVIII 5
Pencil on white laid paper, 97 x 132 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner with various annotations and numbers (see main catalogue entry)
Inscribed in red ink ‘5’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXVIII – 5’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This panoramic vista of Rome continues onto folio 4 verso opposite (D14839), 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, his view takes in the two distant domes of the Basilica of Sant’Andrea della Valle and the Church of Santi Biagio e Carlo ai Catinari near the Piazza Navona, to the north. In the foreground is the Trastevere district, including riverside buildings along the Porto di Ripa Grande, near the ancient Porta Portese city gate. Compared with the roofscape beyond, these buildings are sparsely detailed; to save time, Turner used the numbers ‘4’ and ‘9’ to indicate the number of bays. The two upper inscriptions are presumably colour annotations.
As noted by Cecilia Powell, this work is among five pages in the present sketchbook depicting Rome from Mount Aventine (see also folios 4 verso, 5 verso–6 recto and 7 recto; D14839, D14841–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.
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.217, no.366, pl.370 (colour).
Technical notes:
There appears to be a slight smudge of brown paint towards the bottom-right corner, which may suggest that Turner had this sketchbook to hand while working on the oil painting Rome, from Mount Aventine.

Hannah Kaspar
November 2024

How to cite

Hannah Kaspar, ‘Rome, from the Aventine Hill 1828–9’, catalogue entry, 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/rome-from-the-aventine-hill-r1210214, accessed 15 April 2025.