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

As identified by the Turner scholars Cecilia Powell and Roland Courtot, Turner recorded these views near Lake Vico in northern Lazio.1 Of volcanic origin, it is among Italy’s highest lakes, elevated at around 500 metres above sea level.2 The uppermost of the three views includes a profile of Monte Soratte to the south-east, a mountain range north of Rome. As noted by Courtot, Turner’s vantage point was likely from the Monti Cimini, the slopes bordering Lake Vico to the north, which Turner likely encountered while en route from Viterbo to Caprarola.3 For further commentary on Monte Soratte and a list of relevant views in the sketchbook, see under folio 27 verso (D21815).

The views beneath depict Lake Vico from the north. Visible to the right of the lower sketch is the summit of Monte Venere on the northern shores of the lake, viewed as Turner approached Caprarola. The meaning of his inscription ‘Restoli’ in the bottom-left corner is unclear.

While Turner’s 1828–9 tour of Italy permitted him to sketch Lake Vico at close range, he first encountered this subject decades earlier. In the 1790s, at the behest of Dr Thomas Monro, physician to the King, Turner made numerous copies of Italian views in collaboration with his close contemporary Thomas Girtin, generally after sketches by John Robert Cozens (see Andrew Wilton’s ‘Monro School c.1794–8’ section in the present catalogue). One such example was Lago Di Vico from the Hill of Viterbo (Tate D36476; Turner Bequest CCCLXXIII 63). For Cozens’s depiction of the lake, see Lago di Vico (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, B1977.14.4502).

Lake Vico appears elsewhere in the sketchbook: see also folios 7 verso, 42 verso and 47 verso (D21778, D21839, D21848).