- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) and Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) after John Robert Cozens (1752-1797)
- Title
-
- Portici: Mounts Somma and Vesuvius, from the Myrtle Plantation at Sir William Hamilton’s Villa
- Date
- 1794 - 1797
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 28.8 × 49.3 cm, 11 ⅜ × 19 ⅜ in
- Object Type
- Collaborations; Monro School Copy
- Subject Terms
- Hills and Mountains; Italian View: Naples and Environs; Panoramic Format
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG0712
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in January 2018
Provenance
Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833); his posthumous sale, Christie's, 26–28 June and 1–2 July 1833 (day and lot number not known); bought by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851); accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest, 1856
Bibliography
Bell and Girtin, 1935, p.56; Turner Online as by Joseph Mallord William Turner and Thomas Girtin (Accessed 08/09/2022)
Place depicted
Other entries in Monro School Copies:
Italian Views after Drawings by John Robert Cozens Made on the Second Italian Trip, 1782–83

The Temple of Venus at Baia
Private Collection

Entering the Tyrol: Unidentified Buildings amongst Wooded Hills
Tate, London

An Unidentified Fortress: Entering the Tyrol Region
Private Collection

A View on the River Inn, in the Tyrol
Tate, London

Innsbruck: St Anna's Column on Maria-Theresien Street
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

A Tree-Lined Valley, near Innsbruck
Private Collection

A Church Tower in the Valley of the Isarco, near Sterzing, in the Tyrol
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

The Euganean Hills, Seen from the Walls of Padua
Tate, London

Part of Padua, Seen from the Walls
Private Collection

The Abbey of Santa Giustina at Padua
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

The View from Mirabello, the Villa of Count Algarotti in the Euganean Hills
Private Collection

A Convent on Monte della Madonna in the Euganean Hills
Tate, London

Fano, on the Adriatic Coast
Private Collection

Terracina: The View from the Inn, with the Temple of Jupiter Anxur
Tate, London

Naples: The Villa Belvedere, Seen from Sir William Hamilton's Villa at Posillipo
Private Collection

Naples: The View from Sir William Hamilton's Villa at Portici
Private Collection

Portici: Mounts Somma and Vesuvius, from the Myrtle Plantation at Sir William Hamilton’s Villa
Tate, London

Naples: Solimena’s Villa and Pine Trees
Private Collection

Portici: The Fortress in the Royal Park, Looking towards Mounts Somma and Vesuvius
Tate, London

Portici: The Imperial Minister's Villa, near the Harbour of Granatello
Private Collection

Portici: The View from Sir William Hamilton's Villa, with Vesuvius in the Distance
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Portici: The Royal Palace, from the Park
Tate, London

The Coast at Portici, with the Villa d'Elboeuf in the Foreground and the Harbour of Granatello Beyond
Private Collection

The Coast at Salerno, with Arechi Castle Overlooking the Town
Private Collection

The View from Salerno, Looking towards Vietri sul Mare
Tate, London

An Unidentified Villa in a Valley near Vietri sul Mare
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Salerno: An Ancient Cypress in the Garden of the Franciscan Convent
Tate, London

The Coast at Vietri sul Mare, from near Salerno
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The Torre Crestarella at Vietri sul Mare, with Salerno in the Distance
Private Collection

The Cantilena Convent, near Vietri sul Mare
Tate, London

The Cantilena Convent, near Vietri sul Mare
Private Collection

The Convent of San Francesco at Cava de' Tirreni
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino

Naples: The Fifteenth-Century City Walls, with the Dome of Santa Caterina a Formiello
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City

View from the Road Leading to the Scuola di Virgilio, Showing Nisida, the Islands of Ischia and Procida, and the Promontory of Miseno
Private Collection, Norfolk

The Bay of Porto Paone, a Flooded Crater in the Islet of Nisida
Private Collection

Ancient Ruins on the Coast near the Point of Posillipo
Tate, London

Naples: The View from an Enclosed Road at Posillipo
Tate, London

Posillipo: The Palazzo di Roccella on the Shore
Private Collection

The Amphitheatre at Capua
Tate, London

A Ferry Crossing a River, on the Road between Eboli and Paestum
Tate, London

The View towards Salerno from the Road to Eboli
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Naples: Castel Sant'Elmo
Tate, London

The Royal Park at Astroni
Private Collection

Lake Agnano, Seen from Astroni
Private Collection

Naples: An Unidentified Convent, with Vesuvius in the Distance
Tate, London

Naples: A Range of Convents near Capodimonte, Including the Chinese College
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

The Vanvitelli Aqueduct, near Caserta
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart

The Royal Palace at Caserta, Seen from the Road to the Vanvitelli Aqueduct
Private Collection

The Convent of Santa Lucia, near Caserta
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino

The Convent of Santa Lucia, near Caserta
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Ancient Ruins near the River Garigliano, Gaeta in the Distance
Private Collection

Florence: The Palazzo Vecchio, Seen from the Cascine Park
Tate, London

Florence: The Convent of Monte Oliveto, from the Banks of the Arno
Horne Museum, Florence

Florence: The Convent of Monte Oliveto, from the Banks of the Arno
Private Collection

A Villa on the Banks of the River Arno, Known as the Villa Salviati
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

A Building amongst Trees, on the River Arno near Florence
Sphinx Fine Art, London

A View on the River Arno, with a Tower on a Hill
Tate, London

Florence: The Palazzo Vecchio from the Boboli Gardens, with Fiesole in the Distance
Harrow School, London

Florence: The View from the Boboli Gardens across the Valley of the Arno
Private Collection

An Unidentified Villa, between Florence and Bologna
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

A Wooded Shoreline on Lake Maggiore
Tate, London

Angera: The Borromeo Castle Overlooking Lake Maggiore
Tate, London

The Castle of Arona on Lake Maggiore
Private Collection

Lake Maggiore, from the Shore
Private Collection

Isola Bella on Lake Maggiore
Private Collection

Lake Maggiore, from Isola Bella
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

A Distant View of the Grande Chartreuse
Private Collection

Buildings on a Promontory on the Coast at Posillipo
Private Collection

The Marmore Falls, near Terni
Private Collection

A Narrow Gorge Leading to the Grande Chartreuse
Private Collection

Florence: The View from the Grand Duke's Garden
Private Collection
Footnotes
- 1 The full diary entry, giving crucial details of the artists’ work at Monro’s house, is transcribed in the Documents section of the Archive (1798 – Item 2).
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About this Work
This view of the twin volcanic peaks that dominate the landscape in the vicinity of Naples was bought by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) at the posthumous sale of Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833). The watercolour is a typical example of the unique collaboration between Turner and his almost exact contemporary, Girtin, who worked together at Monro’s London home at the Adelphi across three winters, probably between 1794 and 1797. Here they were employed across three winters, probably between 1794 and 1797, to make ‘finished drawings’ from the ‘Copies’ of the ‘outlines or unfinished drawings of Cozens’ and other artists, amateur and professional, either from Monro’s collection or lent for the purpose. As the two young artists later recalled, Girtin generally ‘drew in outlines and Turner washed in the effects’. ‘They went at 6 and staid till Ten’, which may account for the generally monochrome appearance of the works, and, as the diarist Joseph Farington (1747–1821) reported, Turner received ‘3s. 6d each night’, though ‘Girtin did not say what He had’ (Farington, Diary, 12 November 1798).1
The view is based on a simple outline drawing by John Robert Cozens (1752–97), inscribed ‘From the Myrtle Plantation at Sr. W. Hamilton’s Villa – Portici – August 18’ (see the source image above). This was almost certainly traced by Cozens himself from an on-the-spot sketch, which he made in 1782 on a second visit to Italy (Bell and Girtin, 1935, no.238), when the artist travelled with his patron William Beckford (1760–1844) and stayed in the Naples area for four months (see figure 1). The sketch is contained in the second of seven sketchbooks that survive from the trip and it was presumably traced by Cozens because the books were retained by Beckford. Monro’s posthumous sale, in 1833, contained only twenty or so sketches by Cozens, so the patron must have borrowed the majority of the ‘outlines or unfinished drawings’ copied by Girtin and Turner. A large number of these are contained in an album put together by Sir George Beaumont (1753–1827), which he lent to Monro, but in this case the tracing has come down to us by a different route and is now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Sloan and Joyner, 1993, pp.89–91). Overlaying images of the Cozens tracing and the Monro School watercolour illustrates that whilst the the addition of greater areas of sky and foreground have converted the panoramic format of the source into a more conventional view, the drawing otherwise replicates the tracing. The inscription on the tracing identifies the view as being taken from the plantation behind the villa of Sir William Hamilton (1730–1803) at Portici, and the work thus effectively forms a pair with TG0711, which looks to the north west. The villa belonging to the British envoy was situated close to the newly excavated ruins at Herculaneum and provided a good view of Vesuvius and its extinct neighbour, Mount Somma.
The bulk of the Monro School copies disposed of at the patron’s posthumous sale in 1833 were listed as by Turner alone, and this generally remained the case until the publication of Andrew Wilton’s pioneering article in 1984, since when the joint attribution of the Monro School works to Turner and Girtin has increasingly become the norm (Wilton, 1984a, pp.8–23). Identifying the division of labour within Monro School drawings is considerably helped, as here, when the colour washes by Turner leave some of the pencil work untouched in order to create highlights, with the result that Girtin’s inventive and fluent hand is clearly apparent alongside Turner’s economical use of a simple palette of blues and greys.
On a technical note, Peter Bower has identified the support used by Girtin as a cream wove large post writing paper made by the Balston and Hollingworth Brothers Partnership at Turkey Mill, Maidstone, Kent (Bower, Report).
1794 - 1797
Naples: The View from Sir William Hamilton’s Villa at Portici
TG0711