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 > Rhine, Strassburg and Oxford Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Reichenbach Falls 1802

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Reichenbach Falls’ 1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 27 Recto:
The Reichenbach Falls 1802
D04766
Turner Bequest LXXVII 27
Pencil on white wove paper, 240 x 154 mm
Inscribed in an unknown hand in pencil ‘27’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘LXXVII – 27’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
After visiting Grindelwald and its glaciers, of which he took several views in this sketchbook – see especially folio 29 (D04768) – Turner crossed the Great Scheidegg pass to Meiringen. Descending to the grassy valley of Rosenlaui he was confronted at its far end by the Reichenbach falls, cascading down into the Haslital in clouds of spray. He made several sketches, this being the only one in this sketchbook and perhaps his first impression. He turned the sketchbook sideways to make it, thus already anticipating the upright composition of the watercolour dated 1804 and acquired by Walter Fawkes (Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford).1 The most direct source for the Fawkes watercolour (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin)2 is closely related to this pencil sketch and was presumably worked up from it.
1
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p.341 no.367.
2
Ibid., p.341 no.361.
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
March 2004

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘The Reichenbach Falls 1802 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 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-the-reichenbach-falls-r1133469, accessed 25 April 2024.