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

A long sequence of sketches, mostly characterised as ‘Mountains’ by Finberg (with occasional identifications and transcriptions of the place names marked by the artist), lies between folios 7 recto and 76 recto (D32275–D32411).1 After Bregenz (see under folio 2 verso; D32266), Turner took a south-easterly route towards Venice through the rugged Vorarlberg and Tyrol Alps of Austria via Landeck, into the Austrian territories of northern Italy and the Dolomites by way of Bolzano (Bozen) and Belluno (see the sketchbook’s Introduction).2

Between folios 7 recto and 10 recto (D32275–D32281) the route through Austria is presumably south-east through the Vorarlberg province from Bregenz towards Sankt Anton am Arlberg at the western end of Tyrol on folio 10 verso (D32282), the next subject to be readily identified by its inscription. The present view, made with the page turned horizontally, may include a distant tower at the bottom right, dwarfed by the jagged peaks. Turner’s one-word inscription, apparently ‘Purdn’, likely indicates a local place name, perhaps Blundenz, a few miles west of Sankt Anton.