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

Turner oriented the sketchbook vertically to draw a diagram and note down the names of five villas in Rome, which Finberg transcribed in his 1909 Inventory of the Bequest.1 At the top of the page, the inscription ‘Villa Negroni’ likely refers to the ancient house excavated during the 1770s in the grounds of the Villa Negroni in Rome. The ancient frescoes discovered there were subsequently reproduced in print and disseminated by Camillo Buti.

The second inscription, ‘Villa Lanti R[?ome]’, presumably refers to the Villa Lante al Gianicolo, a sixteenth-century Roman villa on the Janiculum Hill, designed by Giulio Romano. The lower inscriptions also refer to villas in Rome: the fifteenth-century ‘Villa Mellini’ atop the Monte Mario, northwest of central Rome, and the Renaissance ‘Villa Madama’ nearby.2 The ‘Pamplie Doria’ is the Villa Doria Pamphili, surrounded by extensive parklands to the west of the city. The rough diagram at the centre of the page remains to be identified. Whether Turner succeeded in visiting all these villas during his stay in Rome in the winter of 1828–9 is unclear.

Cecilia Powell suggested that Turner was perhaps considering a suitable vantage point from which to base a commission from his friend and patron Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro of Novar.3 It seems he eventually settled on the Aventine Hill, the subject of five pencil studies in the Rome to Rimini sketchbook from the same tour (Tate D14839–D14843; Turner Bequest CLXXVIII 4a–7). These preparatory studies informed his oil painting Rome, from Mount Aventine (private collection), exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1836.4

The villas listed on this page were not unfamiliar to Turner; in 1819, during his first major tour of Italy, he produced several sketches and watercolours depicting their grounds, interiors and contents; see, for example, Nicola Moorby’s entries in the present catalogue for the Small Roman Colour Studies sketchbook (Tate D16481; Turner Bequest CXC 64); the Rome: Colour Studies sketchbook (Tate D16352; Turner Bequest CLXXXIX 26); and the Remarks (Italy) sketchbook (Tate D16849; Turner Bequest CXCIII 80a).