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 Bright Sky 1833

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘An Alpine Mountain Valley ?near Innsbruck, with a Bright Sky’ 1833
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
An Alpine Mountain Valley ?near Innsbruck, with a Bright Sky 1833
D33863
Turner Bequest CCCXLI 169
Chalk and pencil on grey wove paper, 145 x 190 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram below right of centre
Inscribed in red ink ‘169’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCXLI – 169’ 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
Much of the sky above the broad valley is blocked in with white chalk, evoking strong light which also illuminates parts of the foreground, perhaps suggesting a lake or broad river. Another scene with a bright sky (D33847; CCCXLI 159) is annotated to indicate the ‘last gleam’ of sunset.
The verso is D33864 (CCCXLI 169v), with a village in a similar setting.
1
See also Powell 1995, pp.44, 79 note 84.
Technical notes:
There is scattered brown staining, particularly evident over the broadly worked chalk areas in the sky.

Matthew Imms
May 2019

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘An Alpine Mountain Valley ?near Innsbruck, with a Bright Sky 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-bright-sky-r1204290, accessed 20 May 2024.