'Bozen and the Dolomites', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Bozen and the Dolomites

Date 1840

MediumWatercolour and gouache on paper

Dimensionssupport: 196 x 282 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Reference

D32189

Turner Bequest CCCXVII 10

View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms

Display caption

Turner probably drew these two sketches of Bozen in the Tyrol (now the Italian city of Bolzano) from his lodgings. His view is eastwards over the town to the Dolomites, with the elegant Gothic spire and long roof of its fourteenth-century church shown on the right. No.83 was evidently a first attempt to draw the scene, which Turner soon abandoned, concentrating his energies instead on the fine penwork used for the architectural details of no.84. He continued to use this type of grey paper for sketching in a similar style during his fortnight in Venice, 20 August - 3 September, and to depict Passau, Regensburg and Coburg on his return journey through Bavaria.

September 2004