'Lausanne, from the West', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Lausanne, from the West

From Lausanne Sketchbook

Turner Bequest CCCXXXIV

Date 1841

MediumGraphite, watercolour and pen on paper

Dimensionssupport: 235 x 331 mm

Collection

Tate

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

Reference

D33527

Turner Bequest CCCXXXIV 3

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

Display caption

Turner made a substantial number of watercolours while at Lausanne in 1841. He had also paused there five years before during a tour of the Alps with his friend H.A.J.Munro of Novar. In the intervening years work had begun on the viaduct known as the Grand-Pont, which spans the valley between the two halves of the town. It may have been this new feature that encouraged Turner to make more distant views from the western side of the town in 1841, and especially from the valley itself. Ruskin commented that it was characteristic of Turner in these sketches to record 'views of things which nobody else would have thought of'.

August 2004