J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Tour to the Alps 1836 > Fort Bard Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Inscription by Turner: Recollection of Verse Composed for the Painting 'Snow-Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps' 1836

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Inscription by Turner: Recollection of Verse Composed for the Painting 'Snow-Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps'’ 1836
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 61 Verso:
Inscription by Turner: Recollection of Verse Composed for the Painting ‘Snow-Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps’ 1836
D29325
Turner Bequest CCXCIV 60a
Pencil on white wove paper, 104 x 148 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil (see main catalogue entry)
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s inscription reads:
Yet the chief advanced, looked on the Sun
Weak wan and broad skirting [deleted] with hope
When the fierce archer of the downward year
Stained [original word altered] Italy Blanched with storms
In vain the fierce Salassis barrd his way
Or rolling rocks the advancing foe oerwhelmed [inserted: fell trechery found]
Which the loud winds sobs Capua joys beware
    Hannibal crossing the Alps.
Turner here remembers, quite closely, lines he had originally composed to accompany the painting Snow-Storm: Hannibal and his Army crossing the Alps (Tate N00490)1 when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1812.2 The Val d’Aosta was thought to have been one of Hannibal’s possible routes into Italy in 218 BC and Turner’s recollection of his previous work may have been inspired by his thoughts on subjects nearby in the sketchbook, such as the gaunt fort at Verres, sketched as he made his own descent towards the Italian plains.

David Hill
June 2010

1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.88–90 no.126 (pl.131), where the original lines are quoted in full.
2
No.258

How to cite

David Hill, ‘Inscription by Turner: Recollection of Verse Composed for the Painting ‘Snow-Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps’ 1836 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-inscription-by-turner-recollection-of-verse-composed-for-the-r1144875, accessed 05 April 2026.