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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Monro School c.1794-8 > Album of Copies of Swiss and Italian ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Thomas Girtin The Fall of the Reichenbach c.1794-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Thomas Girtin, ‘The Fall of the Reichenbach’ c.1794-8
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Thomas Girtin 1775–1802
Folio 3 Recto:
The Fall of the Reichenbach c.1794–8
D36480
Turner Bequest CCCLXXIV 3
Pencil and grey and grey-blue wash on white wove paper, 250 x 189 mm mounted on white cartridge paper, 480 x 368 mm
Inscribed in a later hand in pencil ‘“Riquenbac”’ on mount, bottom left, descending vertically
Inscribed in pencil ‘3’ on mount, bottom right, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCLXXIV – 3’ on mount, bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The work is mounted with the album page turned vertically. This is after the drawing by John Robert Cozens (1752–1797) from the Payne Knight series formerly in the collections of Herbert Horne and Sir Edward Marsh.1 Turner was to make spectacular watercolours of the Reichenbach after his own journey to Switzerland in 1802.2
1
Bell and Girtin 1935, p.31 no.23.
2
See Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.341 nos.362, reproduced (Courtauld Gallery, London), 367, reproduced (Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford).
Verso:
Blank (laid down); the inscription (probably by Thomas Girtin in pencil) noted by Finberg and transcribed as the work’s title, ‘Riquenbac’, is no longer apparent.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘The Fall of the Reichenbach c.1794–8 by Joseph Mallord William Turner, Thomas Girtin’, catalogue entry, April 2012, 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-thomas-girtin-the-fall-of-the-reichenbach-r1140549, accessed 22 November 2024.