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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > First Italian Tour 1819-20 > Passage of the Simplon Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Mountains, near the Simplon Pass 1819

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Mountains, near the Simplon Pass’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 6 Verso:
Mountains, near the Simplon Pass 1819
D16901
Turner Bequest CXCIV 6 a
Pencil and grey watercolour wash on white wove paper, 121 x 195 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch of a mountain valley depicts a view from the road to or from the Simplon Pass in the Swiss Alps. The uneven and white patches in the top left-hand corner of the page represent where the sheet was held in order to prepare it with a grey watercolour wash. Owing to the dark nature of this ground the pencil details are extremely difficult to decipher. However, visible on the slopes to the left are some pine trees.
For a general discussion of Turner’s expedition to the Simplon Pass see the introduction to the sketchbook.

Nicola Moorby
April 2011

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Mountains, near the Simplon Pass 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-mountains-near-the-simplon-pass-r1132776, accessed 02 January 2025.