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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Southern Germany, Austria and Venice ... > Zirl and the Alps near Innsbruck; ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner An Alpine Mountain Valley ?near Innsbruck, with a Low Moon 1833

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘An Alpine Mountain Valley ?near Innsbruck, with a Low Moon’ 1833
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
An Alpine Mountain Valley ?near Innsbruck, with a Low Moon 1833
D33862
Turner Bequest CCCXLI 168
Chalk and pencil on grey wove paper, 145 x 190 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Inscribed in red ink ‘168’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCXLI – 168’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is one of twenty-eight sketches of mountain scenes (some including castles and other buildings) on the rectos and versos of sixteen pieces of grey paper torn carefully from a single sheet; they were likely all made in the vicinity of Innsbruck within a short period around 23 September 1833, when Turner was travelling back from Venice towards the end of his tour, as discussed in the Introduction to the present subsection.1
There are a few pine trees towards the foreground above the broad valley. Low on the right is what seems to be a waxing gibbous moon, as shown in several similar sketches, illuminating the distant peaks and reflected in water here and there; for the others and how the moon’s phase fits with the late September date, see under D33697 (CCCXLI 18v), perhaps drawn on the same occasion.
1
See also Powell 1995, pp.44, 79 note 84.
Technical notes:
There is considerable patch brown staining.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed in pencil ‘233 | O’ bottom right. There is some brown staining.

Matthew Imms
May 2019

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘An Alpine Mountain Valley ?near Innsbruck, with a Low Moon 1833 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2019, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-an-alpine-mountain-valley-near-innsbruck-with-a-low-moon-r1204289, accessed 20 May 2024.