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

The geographer and Turner researcher Roland Courtot has identified Turin as the subject of this panoramic view.1 Turner arrived in the city from Milan in around mid-January 1829, before continuing his journey westwards towards the Franco-Italian Alps.

Turner’s elevated vantage point was from the Monte dei Cappuccini hill to the east of the city, which is surmounted by the Church of Santa Maria del Monte. Looking northwards across the River Po, he sketched the five arches of the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele I, constructed from 1810. The cylindrical structure towards the right is the Church of Gran Madre di Dio, a Neoclassical church built between 1818 and 1831. Turner’s rough outline appears to show the incomplete building, prior to the installation of its domed roof.2 The major thoroughfare across the river, to the left, is now known as the Piazza Vittorio Veneto. Completed in 1825, when it was known as the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele I, it was a recent development at the time of Turner’s visit. In the foreground, two trees and a stump serve to frame and partially obscure the view. On the northern horizon are the distant Alps.

This is one of thirteen studies depicting Turin dispersed throughout the sketchbook, several of which were composed from the Monte dei Cappuccini: see under folio 7 recto (D21676) for a list of relevant works. Turner previously visited Turin in 1819 during the outward leg of his first Italian tour: for further commentary and a list of relevant works, see Nicola Moorby’s entry for the Turin, Como, Lugarno, Maggiore sketchbook in the present catalogue (Tate D14166; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 11).