Prints and Drawings Room
View by appointment- Artist
- Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
- Medium
- Graphite and watercolour on paper
- Dimensions
- Support: 243 × 304 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
- Reference
- D36125
Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 277
Display caption
One of the Swiss subjects Turner completed in 1842, as a specimen of his new style, was based on this study. When Ruskin saw the finished work he was very keen to acquire it, but delayed acting until he had sought his father's approval. By that time it had been bought by H.A.J.Munro of Novar. Ruskin felt this loss particularly deeply because he considered the watercolour to be 'the noblest Alpine drawing Turner had ever till then made' and 'the best Swiss landscape yet painted by man'. It was not until 1878, when Munro's collection was sold at Christie's, that a group of Ruskin's admirers were able to present him with the watercolour (now in a private collection).
Gallery label, September 2004
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