Joseph Mallord William Turner

A Mountain Village: ?Wassen

1802

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Lake Thun Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 201 × 156 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D04686
Turner Bequest LXXVI 30

Catalogue entry

Finberg’s suggestion of Wassen for this mountain village with chalets and church is plausible. A further possibility might be Göschenen.Turner passed through both places on his way along the St Gotthard road in the Reuss valley, and again on his way back. Other drawings probably or certainly of the Reuss and the St Gotthard route in this sketchbook are folios 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 36 verso, 37, 38, 40 (D04687, D04688, D04689, D04690, D04691, D04692, D04693, D04694, D04695, D04697).The St Gotthard road with its famous and frightening sights like the Devil’s and Little Devil’s Bridges effectively marked the scenic climax of Turner’s tour, and in recognition of its pictorial potential he made his sketches ‘particularly lively’, as David Hill has described.1

David Hill, Turner in the Alps. The Journey through France and Switzerland in 1802, London 1992, p.168.

Verso:

Blank

David Blayney Brown
March 2004

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