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 > Val d'Aosta Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lausanne from the Valley of the Flon 1836

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lausanne from the Valley of the Flon’ 1836
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 52 Verso:
Lausanne from the Valley of the Flon 1836
D29135
Turner Bequest CCXCIII 52a
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 190 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn inverted in relation to the main numbered sequence of subjects in the sketchbook, this sketch records Lausanne Cathedral from the valley of the Flon to the west, with the church of St François to the right. The valley in front of the cathedral was shortly to become the site for the Grand Pont. Building work was begun in 1839 and the official opening was held on 1 October 1844. Turner returned to the site in the 1840s to make a number of sketches with the Grand Pont in place; see for example Tate D33562; Turner Bequest CCCXXXV 22, or a watercolour of Lausanne from the West (private collection).1

David Hill
June 2010

1
Sotheby’s sale, London, 4 July 2007 lot 3.

How to cite

David Hill, ‘Lausanne from the Valley of the Flon 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-lausanne-from-the-valley-of-the-flon-r1144681, accessed 18 April 2024.