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 ?A Northern Italian or Swiss Waterside Town, with Mountains c.1828-44

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?A Northern Italian or Swiss Waterside Town, with Mountains’ c.1828-44
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
?A Northern Italian or Swiss Waterside Town, with Mountains c.1828–44
D34698
Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 254
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 137 x 194 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[...]’ bottom right, upside down
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram below right of centre
Inscribed in red ink ‘254’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCXLIV 254’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This slight mountainous subject is unidentified, but may be in the north of Italy or neighbouring Switzerland; see the Introduction to this section for further brief discussion and dating. There appears to be a low town in the middle distance, apparently by a lake or wide river, as there may be figures in a boat loosely indicated in the foreground. At the bottom right is an inverted detail of buildings, possibly a castle, with what may be a place name inscribed above.
The work is on one half of a folded sheet, with another drawing (D34699; Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 255) on the other. They appear to have been extracted from a sewn but uncut gathering from a blank book, as both halves have a further fold with stitch holes across the centre, parallel with the main fold. This half also retains the stitching itself, which has been cut through on the verso.
Technical notes:
Two dark stains have been offset from one side to the other of the sheet, symmetrically around the central fold.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
February 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?A Northern Italian or Swiss Waterside Town, with Mountains c.1828–44 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-a-northern-italian-or-swiss-waterside-town-with-mountains-r1183074, accessed 26 April 2024.