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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Venice, Austria and Southern Germany ... > Rotterdam to Venice Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Mountains ?in the Tyrol Alps or Dolomites 1840

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Mountains ?in the Tyrol Alps or Dolomites’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Mountains ?in the Tyrol Alps or Dolomites 1840
D41027
Pencil on white wove paper, 105 x 25 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Not mentioned specifically by Finberg,1 this narrow rectangular strip (with one corner trimmed at a slight angle) is fed through two slots below the centre of folio 92 recto (D32443), where the swiftly rendered marks at the top of the strip are continuous with a landscape drawing. The other side is visible within the printed perpetual calendar on folio 92 verso (D41028), and includes engraved days of the week in Dutch, annotated by Turner.
The hasty continuous drawing carried across this strip and the surrounding area of D32443 appears to show a rugged mountain valley. The unidentified subject presumably relates to the long sequence of sketches, mostly characterised as ‘Mountains’ by Finberg, between folios 7 recto and 76 recto (D32275–D32411).2 See the sketchbook’s Introduction for the likely overall route between Bregenz and Venice.

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
See A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.1029, noting only ‘movable calendar’.
2
See Finberg 1909, II, pp.1030–2.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Mountains ?in the Tyrol Alps or Dolomites 1840 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2018, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-mountains-in-the-tyrol-alps-or-dolomites-r1196679, accessed 11 February 2025.