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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > First Italian Tour 1819-20 > Passage of the Simplon Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Bridge at Crevoladossola and the Val d'Ossola 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Bridge at Crevoladossola and the Val d'Ossola’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 23 Recto:
The Bridge at Crevoladossola and the Val d’Ossola 1819
D16932
Turner Bequest CXCIV 23
Pencil and grey watercolour wash on white wove paper, 121 x 195 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Val Domo’ top centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘23’ bottom left, descending left-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CXCIV 23’ bottom left, descending left-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Following his brief detour into Switzerland to visit the Simplon Pass, Turner returned to Italy via Gondo and the Val Divedro (Valley of Divedra). This sketch depicts a view of the bridge at Crevoladossola, a town near the Swiss/Italian border where the River Diveria meets the River Toce.1 Turner’s viewpoint looks south-east from the road from Varzo, past the bridge towards the Val d’Ossola (inscribed by the artist as ‘Val Domo’). Similar vistas across the valley can be seen on folios 28 and 34 (D16942 and D16953), whilst further studies of the Crevoladossola bridge can be found in the Turin, Como, Lugarno, Maggiore sketchbook (see for example Tate D14157 and D14306; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 6a and 83).

Nicola Moorby
May 2011

1
See Crimi 2007, p.35 note 46.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘The Bridge at Crevoladossola and the Val d’Ossola 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2011, 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-the-bridge-at-crevoladossola-and-the-val-dossola-r1132807, accessed 25 April 2024.