J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Second Italian Tour 1828-9 > Rome, Turin and Milan Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Distant Mountains 1828-9

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Distant Mountains’ 1828-9
Folio 4 Verso:
Distant Alps 1829
D21671
Turner Bequest CCXXXV 4a
Pencil on cream wove paper, 90 x 144 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner with colour annotations (see main catalogue entry)
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
In mid-January 1829, Turner travelled westwards from Turin, crossing the Alps to France via Susa, the Mont Cenis pass and Chambéry. He used this sketchbook to rapidly record around two dozen Alpine studies, including the present example.
Executed with the sketchbook turned horizontally, this study contains two jagged profiles of the Alps, possibly viewed from the vicinity of Turin. Both are densely labelled with colour annotations, some of which are legible: ‘Gold’, ‘warm [?sunny]’, and ‘Gold flecks in Red’. The upper-right inscription may read ‘Dark Cloud’, and shading is used in the upper study to heighten these contrasts. This study possibly corresponds with folio 5 recto opposite (D21672), which is similarly annotated with colour notes.

Hannah Kaspar
November 2024

How to cite

Hannah Kaspar, ‘Distant Alps 1829’, catalogue entry, November 2024, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2025, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/distant-alps-r1210312, accessed 17 April 2025.