Turner created a sequence of watercolours showing Mount Rigi seen from the same spot across Lake Lucerne. Each evokes the light effects of different times of day. The results were quite unlike the conventionally ‘Picturesque’ charms of the landscape paintings that dominated the art market and exhibitions.

Even Ruskin seemed a little uncertain what to make of the series ;he wrote

‘I cannot tell why Turner was so fond of the Mount Rigi’. For many modern viewers such designs bring to mind the Impressionist painter Claude Monet's later painted series.