Oil paint on canvas
Tate Britain
Italy
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Robert Vernon
Oil paintings
Collection
Turner owned by Tate
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner-558" aria-label="More by Joseph Mallord William Turner" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Joseph Mallord William Turner</a>
Dogana San Giorgio Citella Steps Europa
Presented by Robert Vernon 1847
adults
animals: mammals
architecture
boat, gondola
boat, sailing
canal
church
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
countries and continents
custom house
dog - non-specific
features
figure
industrial
Italy
natural phenomena
people
periods and styles
places
public and municipal
reflection
religious
Renaissance
society
sunshine
tower
townscapes / man-made features
transport: water
Venice, Dogana
Venice, Grand Canal
Venice, San Giorgio Maggiore
Venice, Zitelle
waterfront
weather
<p>When a critic saw this picture at the Royal Academy in 1842, he said, ‘Venice was surely built to be painted by Turner’. Turner was attracted to how water, light, sky and grand architecture interacted in the city. Here he captures the reflections of the churches of San Giorgio Maggiore and Santa Maria della Presentazione, known as the ‘Zitelle’ (or Citella). He painted this scene from his hotel, The Europa, at the mouth of the Grand Canal.</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2023</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
9 October 2003 – 30 May 2004
2004-05-30
9 October 2003 – 11 January 2004
2004-01-11
2003-10-09
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
15 February 2004 – 30 May 2004
2004-05-30
2004-02-15
Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, USA)
http://www.kimbellart.org
2003-10-09
Turner and Venice
Exhibition
1 October 2007 – 21 September 2008
2008-09-21
1 October 2007 – 6 January 2008
2008-01-06
2007-10-01
National Gallery of Art (Washington DC, USA)
23 June 2008 – 21 September 2008
2008-09-21
2008-06-23
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA)
http://www.metmuseum.org
2007-10-01
JMW Turner
Tate partnerships & programmes
17 November 2008 – 15 February 2009
2009-02-15
17 November 2008 – 15 February 2009
2009-02-15
2008-11-17
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
2008-11-17
JMW Turner: Paintings and Watercolours from the Turner Bequest
Loan-out
5 August 2009 – 26 July 2010
2010-07-26
5 August 2009 – 26 July 2010
2010-07-26
2009-08-05
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-08-05
Italian Odyssey
Collection based display
21 April 2012 – 8 March 2020
2020-03-08
21 April 2012 – 8 March 2020
2020-03-08
2012-04-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-04-21
Travelling Light: European Travels
Collection based display
10 September 2014 – 20 September 2015
2015-09-20
10 September 2014 – 25 January 2015
2015-01-25
2014-09-10
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
24 February 2015 – 24 May 2015
2015-05-24
2015-02-24
J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, USA)
20 June 2015 – 20 September 2015
2015-09-20
2015-06-20
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum (San Francisco, USA)
http://www.famsf.org
2014-09-10
Late Turner: Painting Set Free
Exhibition
24 February 2015 – 31 January 2016
2016-01-31
24 February 2015 – 24 May 2015
2015-05-24
2015-02-24
J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, USA)
20 June 2015 – 20 September 2015
2015-09-20
2015-06-20
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum
31 October 2015 – 31 January 2016
2016-01-31
2015-10-31
Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, Canada)
http://www.ago.net
2015-02-24
Late Turner
Loan-out
28 October 2020 – 12 September 2021
2021-09-12
28 October 2020 – 12 September 2021
2021-09-12
2020-10-28
National Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk
2020-10-28
Reciprocal loan for Turner's Modern World exhibition
Loan-out
13 March 2023
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2023-03-13
Gallery 107
Collection based display
The Dogana, San Giorgio, Citella, from the Steps of the Europa
support: 616 × 927 mm
frame: 870 × 1175 × 110 mm
Presented by <a href="/search?gid=999999978" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Robert Vernon</a> 1847
<div class="text">
<p>When a critic saw this picture at the Royal Academy in 1842, he said, ‘Venice was surely built to be painted by Turner’. Turner was attracted to how water, light, sky and grand architecture interacted in the city. Here he captures the reflections of the churches of San Giorgio Maggiore and Santa Maria della Presentazione, known as the ‘Zitelle’ (or Citella). He painted this scene from his hotel, The Europa, at the mouth of the Grand Canal.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2023-10-25T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>396. </b>[<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-the-dogana-san-giorgio-citella-from-the-steps-of-the-europa-n00372" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00372</span></a>]<b> The Dogana, San Giorgio, Citella, from the Steps of the Europa</b> Exh. 1842</p>
<p>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (372)</p>
<p>Canvas, 24 1/4 × 36 1/2 (62 × 92·5)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Robert Vernon, purchased at the R.A. 1842 and given to the National Gallery 1847; transferred to the Tate Gallery 1949.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> R.A. 1842 (52); Chelsea Society, May 1948; Hamburg, Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen 1949–50 (98); Arts Council tour 1952 (19, repr.); Edinburgh 1968 (19); R.A. 1974–5 (532, repr. in colour p. 147); Leningrad and Moscow 1975–6 (66, repr.); Munich 1979–80 (260, repr.); Paris 1983–4 (67, repr.).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> ‘The Vernon Gallery: The Dogana’, <i>Art Journal</i>
1849, p. 260, engr. J.T. Willmore; Hall, i, 1850, no. 7, engr. J.T. Willmore; Hall 1851<sup>2</sup>, p. 8 no. 54; Cunningham 1852, p. 46; Waagen 1854, i, p. 385 as no. 57, second of ‘the two views of Venice’; Thornbury 1862, i, p. 322; Wornum 1875, pp. 64–5, engr.; Thornbury 1877, p. 449; Vernon Heath, <i>Recollections</i> 1892, p. 353; Bell 1901, pp. 143–4 no. 231; Armstrong 1902, p. 235; Finberg 1930, pp. 140, 156, pl. 27; Davies 1946, p. 147; Clare 1951, p. 111; Finberg 1961, pp. 390, 506 no. 545; Kitson 1964, pp. 81–2, repr. in colour p. 65; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, p. 66, colour pl. xxii; Herrmann 1975, pp. 49, 234, pl. 158; Butlin 1981, p. 43.</p>
<p>Turner seems to have stayed at the Hotel Europa on some if not all of his visits to Venice. There are many <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolours</span></a> made from the hotel, including views of fireworks taken from the roof or an upper room. Exceptionally among Turner's late oil <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a>, this picture seems to be in part taken from a drawing of the Dogana and the Zitelle (the ‘Citella’ of Turner's title) in the ‘Milan to Venice’ sketchbook, made on Turner's first visit in 1819 (CLXXV-40, repr. Finberg 1930, pl. 2). However, the view is such a well-known one that recourse to a drawing may not have been necessary. A similar view but omitting San Giorgio on the left appears in the watercolour entitled <i>The New Moon</i> in a private collection (W 1365; repr. in colour exh. cat., Paris 1983–4, p. 289 no. 236). This probably dates from about 1840 but, <i>pace</i> Finberg (<i>ibid.</i>, pp. 140, 161, colour pl. 24), is unlikely to have been used as a basis for the oil as the viewpoint is slightly different.</p>
<p>Thornbury's reference to a painting of ‘“Canal of the Giudecca, San Giorgio Maggiore, the Dogana” and other objects’ as having been exhibited in 1834 and bought by Vernon is a confusion with the <i>Venice</i> of that year (No. 356). This mistaken identification seems first to occur in the first edition of Ralph N. Wornum's <i>Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery ...: British School</i> 1857, p. 80; it is not found in Hall 1851. The picture was listed in Vernon's deed of gift of 22 December 1847 merely as ‘Venice’. Given to the National Gallery by Vernon with three other Turners in 1847 (Nos. 343 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-the-prince-of-orange-william-iii-embarked-from-holland-and-landed-at-torbay-n00369" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00369</span></a>], 349 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-bridge-of-sighs-ducal-palace-and-custom-house-venice-canaletti-painting-n00370" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00370</span></a>] and 355 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-the-golden-bough-n00371" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00371</span></a>]), it was placed on view as a token of the whole of Vernon's collection of contemporary British painting, the first Turner to be shown in the National Gallery.</p>
<p>This picture and the other Venetian oil exhibited in 1842, <i>Campo Santo, Venice</i> (No. 397), were, on the whole, highly praised by the critics. For the <i>Spectator</i>, 7 May, they were ‘Two lovely views of Venice, gorgeous in hue and atmospheric in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/t/tone" title="Glossary definition for 'Tone'"><span>tone</span></a>.’ For the <i>Athenaeum</i> of the same date they were ‘among the loveliest, because least exaggerated pictures, which this magician (for such he is, in right of his command over the spirits of Air, Fire, and Water) has recently given us. Fairer dreams never floated past poets' eye; and the aspect of the City of Waters is hardly one iota idealised. As pieces of effect, too, these works are curious; close at hand, a splashed palette—an arm's length distant, a clear and delicate shadowing forth of a scene made up of crowded and minute objects!’ The <i>Art Union</i> for 1 June was rather more critical. ‘Venice was surely built to be painted by Canaletto and Turner ... The Venetian pictures are now among the best this artist paints, but the present specimens are of a decayed brilliancy; we mean, they are by no means comparable with others he has within a few years exhibited. A great error in Mr. Turner's smooth water pictures is, that the reflection of colours in the water are painted as strongly as the substances themselves, a treatment which diminishes the value of objects.’</p>
<p>Noting that the two pictures were coupled in many contemporary reviews Christopher Mullen has suggested (exh. cat., Munich 1979–80) that they were paired as representing Venice at its apogee, with the Dogana as symbol of mercantile power, and in decline, with the island cemetery of the Campo Santo on the island of San Michele. John Gage (exh. cat., Paris 1983–4) supports this by pointing to the contrast between the pots on the steps on the right of No. 396 [<span>N00372</span>] (one of Turner's last-minute additions), which probably represent imported luxury ware, and the floating garbage in the foreground of <i>Campo Santo</i>. He also suggests that the juxtaposition of the highly coloured pots with the black and white dogs in No. 396 [<span>N00372</span>] summarises Turner's range both of colour and of depth of tone.</p>
<p>The painting is painted on a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a> bearing the third form of the Thomas Brown stamp, which seems to have come in in about 1839.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, <i>The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner</i>, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults animals: mammals architecture boat, gondola boat, sailing canal church cities, towns, villages (non-UK) countries and continents custom house dog - non-specific features figure industrial Italy natural phenomena people periods and styles places public and municipal reflection religious Renaissance society sunshine tower townscapes / man-made features transport: water Venice, Dogana Venice, Grand Canal Venice, San Giorgio Maggiore Venice, Zitelle waterfront weather