Joseph Mallord William Turner

Mountains and Castles ?in the Tyrol Alps

1840

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Rotterdam to Venice Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 149 × 89 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D32310
Turner Bequest CCCXX 25 a

Catalogue entry

There are at least three similar views here, one above the other, with the one at the bottom inverted relative to the others. They show mountainous scenery with hilltop castles (likely ruined) and perhaps other buildings. It is unclear whether the top third comprises a single subject or two overlapping; it (or they) and the middle view, apparently inscribed with a scrawled place name, continue across folio 26 recto opposite.

A long sequence of sketches, mostly characterised as ‘Mountains’ by Finberg (with occasional identifications and transcriptions of the place names marked by the artist), lies between folios 7 recto and 76 recto (D32275–D32411).1 See the sketchbook’s Introduction for the likely overall route between Bregenz and Venice.2

Matthew Imms
September 2018

See Finberg 1909, II, pp.1030–2.

See also Cecilia Powell, Turner in Germany, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1995, pp.65, 81 note 9.

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