(Orvieto)

View of the city of Orvieto, 1840 circa, taken from the famous painting by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851).

Turner painted this picture in 1828, during his stay in Rome. Unlike many of his Italian landscapes, it shows a real place. Turner made several sketches of Orvieto on his journey to Rome. The final painting combines these sketches with compositions Turner admired in the work of the 17th-century classical landscape painter, Claude Lorrain.

This is one of a small group of paintings Turner showed in an exhibition he held at his lodgings in Rome in 1828. He may have reworked it before showing it in London two years later.

Etching, with fine later hand colour, good condition.