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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Switzerland 1802 > France, Savoy, Piedmont Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lake Shore at Geneva; Moonrise 1802

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lake Shore at Geneva; Moonrise’ 1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 42 Recto:
Lake Shore at Geneva; Moonrise 1802
D04436
Turner Bequest LXXIII 42
Pencil and white chalk on grey-buff laid paper, 138 x 215 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Do’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LXXIII 42’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s inscription, meaning ‘Ditto’, refers to the previous page of this sketchbook, folio 41 (D04435), a view of Geneva made from the west of the city near the junctions of the Rivers Arve and Rhône. For Geneva see especially folio 5 (D04397), and also folios 35, 39–40, 43 and 44 (D04427, D04433–D04434, D04437, D04438). Here, if Le Môle is seen in the distance, Turner is sketching the harbour front. Confirming that Turner shows moon rather than sunrise, David Hill observes in correspondence with the author that the angle of vision is too far south-east for it to be the latter, but perfect for the former in summer.1 This is an atmospheric study of twilight, with masses and shadows rendered by hatching in pencil and the moon and its halo in white chalk.
1
Letter to David Blayney Brown, 4 April 2004, Tate catalogue files.
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
June 2004

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Lake Shore at Geneva; Moonrise 1802 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2004, 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-lake-shore-at-geneva-moonrise-r1133065, accessed 25 April 2024.