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

Turner’s excursion from Italy into the Swiss Alps took him along a route from Domodossola and the Val Divedro to Gondo and the Simplon Pass. In order to record the dramatic landscape through which he was travelling he opted to sketch the majority of his views on sheets prepared with a grey watercolour wash. The drawing of steep mountainous peaks on this page is too faint to be identified as a particular location. However, it is likely to depict the ascent towards the Simplon Pass. The artist has scratched out an area of the grey wash to reveal the white paper beneath. This perhaps denotes snow or cloud amidst the mountains.