Joseph Mallord William Turner Lucerne: Moonrise over the Kapellbrücke c.1807-19
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Lucerne: Moonrise over the Kapellbrücke circa 1807–19
D08182
Vaughan Bequest CXVIII b
Vaughan Bequest CXVIII b
Watercolour on white wove paper, 214 x 277 mm
Watermark ‘J Whatman’
Watermark ‘J Whatman’
Bequeathed by Henry Vaughan 1900
Provenance:
...
Henry Vaughan by 1878
...
Henry Vaughan by 1878
Exhibition history
1904
National Gallery, London, various dates to at least 1904 (877, as ‘Lucerne’).
1921
The Liber Studiorum by Turner: Drawings, Etchings, and First State Mezzotint Engravings with Some Additional Engravers’ Proofs and 51 of the Original Copperplates, National Gallery, Millbank [Tate Gallery], London, November 1921–November 1922 ([XCVII]).
1922
Original Drawings, Etchings, Mezzotints, and Copperplates for the “Liber Studiorum” by J.M.W. Turner, R.A., Whitworth Institute Art Galleries, Manchester, December 1922–March 1923 (not in catalogue).
1951
Loan of Turner Watercolours from the British Museum, Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, London, May–June/July 1951 (no catalogue).
1951
Paintings by J.M.W. Turner (1775 – 1851) to Commemorate the Centennial of his Death, Art Gallery of Toronto and National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, October–December 1951 (42, as ‘Moonlight on a river, Lucerne(?)’).
1982
J.M.W. Turner Watercolors from the British Museum, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, March–May 1982, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, May–July 1982 (14, reproduced, as ‘Moonlight: Lucerne’, circa 1815–20).
Engraved:
(see main catalogue entry)
(see main catalogue entry)
References
1878
W[illiam] G[eorge] Rawlinson, Turner’s Liber Studiorum, A Description and a Catalogue, London 1878, p.175 no.97, as ‘Moonlight on a River. – Lucerne.?’.
1904
E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn eds., Library Edition: The Works of John Ruskin: Volume XIII: Turner: The Harbours of England; Catalogues and Notes, London 1904, p.645 no.877, as ‘Lucerne’.
1906
W[illiam] G[eorge] Rawlinson, Turner’s Liber Studiorum, A Description and a Catalogue. Second Edition, Revised Throughout, London 1906, p.202 no.97, as ‘Moonlight on a River. (Lucerne?)’.
1908
Edward F. Strange, The Etched and Engraved Work of Frank Short, A.R.A., R.E., London 1908, pp.55–6, as ‘Moonlight on a River (Lucerne?).
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.324, CXVIII b, as ‘Lucerne (?)’ (Vaughan Bequest), circa 1810.
1911
Liber Studiorum: J.M.W. Turner: Miniature Edition Containing Reproductions (I.) from First Published State of the Seventy-One Published Plates, and (II.) of the Original Drawings for, or Engraver’s Proofs of, All the Unpublished Plates as the Artist Left Them, London and Glasgow 1911, reproduced p.119 no.97, as ‘Moonlight on a River’.
1921
Untitled typescript list of works relating to 1921 and 1922 Liber Studiorum exhibitions, [circa 1921], Tate exhibition files, Tate Archive TG 92/9/2, p.6.
1938
Martin Hardie, The Liber Studiorum Mezzotints of Sir Frank Short, R.A., P.R.E. after J.M.W. Turner, R.A. Catalogue & Introduction, London 1938, p.73, reproduced p.[121] pl.XXI (above).
1982
Andrew Wilton, Turner Abroad: France; Italy; Germany; Switzerland, London 1982, pp.36, 69, pl.15 (colour), as circa 1815–20.
1992
David Hill, Turner in the Alps: The Journey through France & Switzerland in 1802, London 1992, p.130, reproduced, as circa 1807.
1996
Gillian Forrester, Turner’s ‘Drawing Book’: The Liber Studiorum, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1996, pp. 15, 16, 24 note 83, 25 note 86, 152 note 7, as ‘CXVII b’.
Turner had visited Lucerne on the Swiss leg of his first Continental tour in 1802. The medieval Kapellbrücke, its prominent Wasserturm silhouetted at the centre of Turner’s design with exaggerated vertical proportions, crosses the Reuss just after it exits Lake Lucerne (to the east); from the tower’s position relative to the banks it seems to be shown looking west from the lake (the actual tower being closest to the south bank), although as there appear to be no corresponding drawings among the 1802 sketches this may be fortuitous.
The work has traditionally been categorised as an unengraved Liber Studiorum design. Turner did not record the bridge again until his 1840s visits, for example in the Spires and Heidelberg sketchbook (Tate D29772; Turner Bequest CCXCVII 1). In the subsequent moonlit ‘sample study’ (Tate D36182; Turner Bequest CCCLXIV [a] 324) and finished watercolour of 1843 (British Museum, London)1 the bridge’s tower appears respectively at the left and right ends of the bridge, implying opposite viewpoints. The present design is quite tentative and perhaps therefore datable to the early days of the Liber project; However, Gillian Forrester has compared it technically to the Liber design Moonlight at Sea (Tate D08176; Vaughan Bequest CXVIII V), which she has dated to about 1818.2 In the absence of specific evidence, the span of the Liber Studiorum’s active publication, 1807–19, is suggested here as a date range for the present work (as it is for various other unpublished designs). Its general similarities to the designs showing Basle and Laufenberg (see Tate D08110, D08135; Turner Bequest CXVI I, CXVII H) may have led to its rejection, especially as the Basle composition may have originally been intended as a moonlit scene. However, as Andrew Wilton has noted, ‘it does foreshadow in a most interesting way’ the 1843 compositions.3
Technical notes:
There is no obvious pencil work. The moon was reserved and the sky washed, then worked again with a darker wash, leaving light streaks between the brushstrokes; a heavier, dry wash was used for darkest clouds. The buildings and figures were defined with a brush. The outlines of the buildings to the left appear blotted. Fingerprints in dark washes at left. The sheet is among five unengraved Liber-type drawings once owned by Henry Vaughan of which four ‘certainly, and all five probably, derive from the “Studies for Liber” sketchbook’,1 some leaves of which are watermarked 1807 (Tate; Turner Bequest CXV); the others are Tate D08179–D08181, D08183; Vaughan Bequest CXVIII Y, Z, a, c.
Verso:
Blank, save for inscriptions.
Inscribed in pencil ‘b’ right centre, ‘CXVIII. b’ bottom left, ‘4’ bottom centre and by the artist ‘moonligh[?t].’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘[crown] | N•G | CXVIII – b’ bottom centre
Stamped in black ‘[crown] | N•G | CXVIII – b’ bottom centre
Matthew Imms
May 2006
How to cite
Matthew Imms, ‘Lucerne: Moonrise over the Kapellbrücke c.1807–19 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2006, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www