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 A Village in an Alpine Mountain Valley ?near Innsbruck 1833

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Village in an Alpine Mountain Valley ?near Innsbruck’ 1833
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
A Village in an Alpine Mountain Valley ?near Innsbruck 1833
D33864
Turner Bequest CCCXLI 169v
Chalk and pencil on grey wove paper, 145 x 190 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘w’ centre left, on building
Inscribed in pencil ‘233 | O’ top right, upside down
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.
Beyond a white (‘w’) cottage below the crag in the left foreground, there appears to be a small village on a hill in the middle distance, perhaps with a church spire. There are touches of white chalk here and there, particularly on the distant peaks.
The recto is D33863, showing a similar landscape.
Technical notes:
There is scattered brown staining.

Matthew Imms
May 2019

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Village in an Alpine Mountain Valley ?near Innsbruck 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-a-village-in-an-alpine-mountain-valley-near-innsbruck-r1204291, accessed 20 May 2024.