Joseph Mallord William Turner

?Northern Italian or Swiss Mountains

c.1828–44

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 91 x 230 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D34567
Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 182

Catalogue entry

This loosely rendered mountainous subject is unidentified, but may be in the north of Italy or neighbouring Switzerland; see the Introduction to this section for further brief discussion and dating. The sketch is so rapid and elemental that the orientation of the scene or scenes seems doubtful.

There are other mountain drawings on the verso (D34568; Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 181v); the views were made on one half of a folded sheet, with D34566 (Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 181v) opposite the present sketch and D34565 (Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 181) on its recto.

Finberg noted: ‘(Nos. [Turner Bequest CCCXLIV] 174–226 were among the contents of a parcel endorsed by Mr. [John] Ruskin, – “B. 2. Forty-eight pieces of paper, some double or 4-ple. Pencil outline, same class as B. 1.”).’1

Matthew Imms
February 2016

Finberg 1909, II, p.1123.

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