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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Northern Italy or Switzerland c.1828-44 > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Northern Italian or Swiss Mountains c.1840-4

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Northern Italian or Swiss Mountains’ c.1840-4
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
?Northern Italian or Swiss Mountains c.1840–4
D34602
Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 200
Pencil on white wove paper, 153 x 96 mm
Partial watermark ‘J Wh | 1’
Inscribed in red ink ‘200’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCXLIV 200’ bottom left, descending vertically
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the sheet both ways up, the mountainous subjects are unidentified, but may be in the north of Italy or neighbouring Switzerland; see the Introduction to this section for further brief discussion and dating. The one at the top is relatively detailed, with some shading and apparently a tower on a ridge at the top left; the inverted sketch at the bottom may be a looser variation. The full watermark would evidently have been ‘J Whatman | 1837’, matching the ‘atman | 837’ on another sheet in this section (Tate D34625, D34626; Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 213, 213v), and precluding a date before Turner’s being in the region in 1840.
Finberg noted: ‘(Nos. [Turner Bequest CCCXLIV] 174–226 were among the contents of a parcel endorsed by Mr. [John] Ruskin, – “B. 2. Forty-eight pieces of paper, some double or 4-ple. Pencil outline, same class as B. 1.”).’1
1
Finberg 1909, II, p.1123.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
February 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?Northern Italian or Swiss Mountains c.1840–4 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-northern-italian-or-swiss-mountains-r1183067, accessed 19 April 2024.