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.1828-44

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Northern Italian or Swiss Mountains’ c.1828-44
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
?Northern Italian or Swiss Mountains c.1828–44
D34763
Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 308
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 165 x 120 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘A A[...]’ towards top right
Inscribed in red ink ‘308’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCCXLIV 308’ top left, upside down
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The mountain valley subject at the top 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. Turner’s brief note may relate to a place name.
There is another drawing on the verso (D34764; Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 308v); the views were made on one half of a folded sheet, with D34762 (Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 307v) opposite the present sketch and D34761 (Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 307) on its recto. For the relationship of these drawings to similar sheets, see the technical notes below.
Technical notes:
There is some spotting to the surface, either through rubbing or damp.
As discussed above, the present work is one of four accessioned drawings on a single folded sheet. Finberg listed other similar instances consecutively,1 making a total of twelve drawings of similar subjects made on three quarters (matching at the torn edges) of an original sheet measuring some 317 x 465 mm. The fourth quarter is yet to be identified, but the others are Tate D34755–D34758 (Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 304, 304v, 305, 305v), and Tate D34759, D34760, D34765 and D34766 (Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 306, 306v, 309, 309v).

Matthew Imms
February 2016

1
Finberg 1909, II, pp.1135–6.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?Northern Italian or Swiss 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-northern-italian-or-swiss-mountains-r1183084, accessed 24 April 2024.