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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Northern Italy or Switzerland c.1828-44 > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Northern Italian or Swiss Mountains c.1828-44

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Northern Italian or Swiss Mountains’ c.1828-44
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
?Northern Italian or Swiss Mountains c.1828–44
D34567
Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 182
Pencil on white wove paper, 91 x 230 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram right of centre
Inscribed in red ink ‘182’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCXLIV 182’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This loosely rendered mountainous subject is unidentified, but may be in the north of Italy or neighbouring Switzerland; see the Introduction to this section for further brief discussion and dating. The sketch is so rapid and elemental that the orientation of the scene or scenes seems doubtful.
There are other mountain drawings on the verso (D34568; Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 181v); the views were made on one half of a folded sheet, with D34566 (Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 181v) opposite the present sketch and D34565 (Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 181) on its recto.
Finberg noted: ‘(Nos. [Turner Bequest CCCXLIV] 174–226 were among the contents of a parcel endorsed by Mr. [John] Ruskin, – “B. 2. Forty-eight pieces of paper, some double or 4-ple. Pencil outline, same class as B. 1.”).’1

Matthew Imms
February 2016

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.1123.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?Northern Italian or Swiss Mountains c.1828–44 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-northern-italian-or-swiss-mountains-r1183054, accessed 26 December 2024.