Oil paint on canvas
Italy
Tate Collection
Works with images
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Turner Bequest
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>
Southern Landscape with an Aqueduct and Waterfall
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
aqueduct
architecture
bridges and viaducts
countries and continents
gorge
hill
Italy
landscape
places
tree
water: inland
waterfall
<p>No caption currently available</p><p><em>Gallery label, July 2020</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
23 July 2001 – 23 June 2002
2002-06-23
23 July 2001 – 23 June 2002
2002-06-23
2001-07-23
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-07-23
Italy and the Classical Tradition
Collection based display
8 July 2002 – 21 May 2007
2007-05-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-07-08
Turner and Tourism in Europe
Collection based display
4 September 2004 – 9 January 2005
2005-01-09
4 September 2004 – 9 January 2005
2005-01-09
2004-09-04
Statens Museum for Kunst (Copenhagen, Denmark)
2004-09-04
Turner and Constable and their European Contemporaries
Loan-out
20 March 2009 – 27 July 2009
2009-07-27
20 March 2009
2009-03-20
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-03-20
Turner's Later Oil Sketches and Unfinished Works
Collection based display
14 March 2012 – 5 June 2012
2012-06-05
14 March 2012 – 5 June 2012
2012-06-05
2012-03-14
National Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk
2012-03-14
Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude
Loan-out
14 April 2014 – 20 July 2014
2014-07-20
14 April 2014 – 20 July 2014
2014-07-20
2014-04-14
Fondazione Terzo Pilastro - Palazzo Cipolla (Rome, Italy)
2014-04-14
Hogarth, Reynolds, Turner: British Painting and the Rise of Modernity
Loan-out
1 December 2017 – 30 April 2018
2018-04-30
1 December 2017 – 30 April 2018
2018-04-30
2017-12-01
Groninger Museum (Groningen, The Netherlands)
http://www.groninger-museum.nl
2017-12-01
Romanticism in Northern Europe
Loan-out
6 July 2019 – 2 May 2021
2021-05-02
6 July 2019 – 13 October 2019
2019-10-13
2019-07-06
Kunstmuseum (Luzern, Switzerland)
http://www.kunstmuseumluzern.ch
8 November 2019 – 26 January 2020
2020-01-26
2019-11-08
LWL-Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Westfälisches (Munster, Germany)
http://landesmuseum.lwl.org
20 February 2020 – 7 September 2020
2020-09-07
2020-02-20
Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville, USA)
15 October 2020 – 2 May 2021
2021-05-02
2020-10-15
Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec (Québec, Canada)
http://www.mnba.qc.ca
2019-07-06
The Sea and the Alps: Turner's Quest for the Sublime
Tate partnerships & programmes
28 October 2023 – 10 March 2024
2024-03-10
28 October 2023 – 10 March 2024
2024-03-10
2023-10-28
Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus (Munich, Germany)
2023-10-28
Turner at Lenbachhaus Munich
Loan-out
Southern Landscape with an Aqueduct and Waterfall
support: 1502 × 2492 mm
frame: 1817 × 2812 × 150 mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the <a href="/search?gid=999999781" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Turner Bequest</a> 1856
<div class="text">
<p>No caption currently available</p>
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Display caption
2020-07-07T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p>[from]<b> Works Painted in Rome, 1828–9</b></p>
<p>TURNER went to Rome for the second time in 1828, leaving England in August and arriving in October; he stayed until early January 1829, and was back in England in February. Sir Charles Eastlake told Thornbury that they both stayed at 12 Piazza Mignanelli and that Turner ‘painted there the “View of Orvieto”, the “Regulus” and the “Medea” [Nos. 292 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-view-of-orvieto-painted-in-rome-n00511" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00511</span></a>], 294 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-regulus-n00519" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00519</span></a>] and 293 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-vision-of-medea-n00513" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00513</span></a>]]. Those pictures were exhibited in Rome in some rooms which Turner subsequently occupied at the Quattro Fontane. The foreign artists who went to see them could make nothing of them’. However, Eastlake reported a more mixed reception in a letter to England in February 1829: ‘More than a thousand persons went to see his works when exhibited, so you can imagine how astonished, enraged or delighted the different schools of artists were, at seeing things with methods so new, so daring and excellences so unequivocal. The angry critics have, I believe, talked most, and it is possible you may hear of <i>general</i> severity of judgment, but many did justice, and many more were fain to admire what they confessed they dared not imitate.’</p>
<p>Turner advertised in the <i>Diario di Roma</i> for 17 December 1828 that he was to exhibit ‘<i>due Paesaggi</i>’ for a week at the Palazzo Trulli. These John Gage identifies as <i>Orvieto</i> and <i>Regulus</i>, though it is known that <i>Medea</i> was on view on 17 December. In a letter of February 1829, Eastlake confirmed that Turner had exhibited these three works, as well as having begun ‘eight or ten pictures’ (for a later letter by Eastlake, see No. 328a).</p>
<p>A number of <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> from the Turner Bequest are identical in their coarse <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>, the form of the original stretcher, and the way in which the canvas was fastened to the stretcher (with upholsterer's sprigs) to <i>Orvieto</i> and <i>Medea</i> (<i>Regulus</i> is on a similar canvas, but has lost its original stretcher and form of attachment). These are the three figure subjects, Nos. 296 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-reclining-venus-n05498" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05498</span></a>], 297 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-two-recumbent-nude-figures-n05517" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05517</span></a>] and 298 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-outline-of-a-venus-pudica-n05509" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05509</span></a>], and <i>Southern <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>Landscape</span></a></i>, No. 299 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-southern-landscape-n05510" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05510</span></a>]. Other works probably from the group are Nos. 300 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-southern-landscape-with-an-aqueduct-and-waterfall-n05506" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05506</span></a>] and 301 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-italian-landscape-probably-civita-di-bagnoregio-n05473" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05473</span></a>]. Other candidates for works begun in Rome are the <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/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> sketches on a similar though even rather coarser canvas, Nos. 302–17; see p. 160. These sketches, and one of the larger unfinished pictures (No. 300), shows signs of having been rolled, presumably for ease of despatch to London. Both types of coarse canvas would seem to be Italian in origin, presumably purchased in Rome. Probably also from this trip are the smaller sketches on millboard. Nos. 318–27.</p>
<p>Turner had in fact written from Paris on II August 1828 to Charles Eastlake, who was already in Rome, asking him to secure one or two canvases, 59 1/4 × 98 1/2 in., so that he could begin straight away on a landscape for Lord Egremont. This is generally held to be <i>Palestrina</i> (No. 295 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-palestrina-composition-n06283" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N06283</span></a>]), which measures 55 1/4 × 98 in. but is in fact on a fine canvas.</p>
<p>Turner himself reported his progress in a letter to Sir Francis Chantrey of 6 November 1828: ‘I have confined myself to the painting department...and having finished <i>one</i>, am about the second, and getting on with Lord E's [presumably <i>Palestrina</i>], which I began the very first touch at Rome; but as folk here talked that I would show them <i>not</i>, I finished a small three feet four to stop their gabbling’; this last was presumably <i>Orvieto</i>.</p>
<p>Eastlake's account in Thornbury goes on, ‘When those same works were packed to be sent to England, I advised him to have the cover covered with waxed cloth, as the pictures without it might be exposed to wet. Turner thanked me, and said the advice was important; “for”, he added, “if any wet gets to them, they will be destroyed.” This indicates his practice of preparing his pictures with a kind of <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/tempera" title="Glossary definition for 'Tempera'"><span>tempera</span></a>, a method which, before the surface was varnished, was not waterproof [in fact analysis has not revealed any tempera, though Turner did quite often use <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>watercolour</span></a> on his oils and in at least one case, No. 300, a picture apparently from this group seems to have suffered losses to its water-soluble glazes]. The pictures referred to were in fact not finished; nor could any of his exhibited pictures be said to be finished till he had worked on them when they were on the walls of the Royal <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/academy" title="Glossary definition for 'Academy'"><span>Academy</span></a>’. This is supported by the review of <i>Orvieto</i> in the <i>Morning Chronicle</i> for 3 May 1830 quoted under <i>Pilate washing his Hands</i> (No. 332 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-pilate-washing-his-hands-n00510" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00510</span></a>]). Although Turner had hoped that his Rome paintings would reach London in time for the 1829 Exhibition, there were shipping delays and <i>Orvieto</i> and <i>Palestrina</i> were not exhibited until 1830, nor <i>Medea</i> until 1831; <i>Regulus</i> was not exhibited until 1837.</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Thornbury 1862, i, p. 221; 1877, p. 100; Finberg 1961, pp. 307–11; Gage 1968, pp. 679–80; Gage 1980, pp. 118–20, 125, 127, 132.</p>
<p></p>
<p><b>300. </b>[<span>N05506</span>]<b> Southern Landscape with an Aqueduct and Waterfall</b>
1828</p>
<p>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (5506)</p>
<p>Canvas, 59 1/8 × 98 1/8 (150 × 249)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (248, one of 2 each 8'2 1/2" × 4'11 3/4" with? No. 301; identified 1946 by chalk number on back); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1947.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> Dresden (10, repr. in colour) and Berlin (14) 1972; Lisbon 1973 (11, repr. in colour); Milan 1975 (151, repr.); Leningrad and Moscow 1975–6 (53).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Davies 1946, pp. 162, 190; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, p. 50.</p>
<p>The canvas is similar to that of the works known definitely to have been painted in Rome in 1828 (see p. 170), but as the original edges and stretcher have disappeared one cannot be certain whether this was one of the group. It is however similar in style and technique, and can therefore be dated to the same period. Like the Roman sketches, Nos. 302–17, the canvas has been rolled (as is shown by the vertical craquelure), and was perhaps taken back by Turner to England overland rather than sent home by sea (see introduction to Nos. 302–17 below).</p>
<p>An old National Gallery <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/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photograph</span></a> suggests that a considerable amount of detail, particularly in the trees, has been lost, possibly through the removal of watersoluble glazes during relining. The <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/impasto" title="Glossary definition for 'Impasto'"><span>impasto</span></a> has been flattened during the same operation.</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
2004-10-07T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
aqueduct architecture bridges and viaducts countries and continents gorge hill Italy landscape places tree waterfall water: inland