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

The sketch confined to the outer half of this page is a direct continuation from the panoramic vista depicted on folios 5 verso–6 recto (D14841–D14842). The buildings running off the right-hand edge of folio 6 recto align with those at the left here, and Turner evidently temporarily slid the first page back to allow a little more space to complete the vista. His vantage point was from the Aventine Hill in Rome, which borders the River Tiber south-west of the Forum and the Colosseum. Looking north-west across the river towards the Trastevere district, his view takes in a church belltower in the foreground, likely that of the Basilica of Santa Cecilia. The inscription ‘w’ towards the top is likely a colour annotation for ‘white’.

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–6 recto; D14839–D14842). 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.