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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Venice, Austria and Southern Germany ... > Rotterdam to Venice Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Mountain Peaks and Sunset Clouds, Probably over the Dolomites beyond Belluno 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Mountain Peaks and Sunset Clouds, Probably over the Dolomites beyond Belluno’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 71 Recto:
Mountain Peaks and Sunset Clouds, Probably over the Dolomites beyond Belluno 1840
D32401
Turner Bequest CCCXX 71
Pencil on white wove paper, 149 x 89 mm
Partial watermark ‘J H’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Blu’ top left, ‘o[...] as fi[...]’ towards top centre, ‘So like Fir’ and ‘Pink D[...]’ towards top left, ‘orange’ above centre, ‘D B | [...] West’ left of centre, ‘Cold’ below right of centre, ‘Hill Red’ towards top right, descending vertically, and ‘[?Tree ... way]’ towards bottom right, descending vertically
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘71’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCCXX – 71’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, there are two related mountain skylines here, apparently as the setting for successive stages of a sunset, diligently inscribed with notes on colour and effect. Finberg linked the page to adjacent views of Belluno (see under folio 66 verso; D32392), and one view of the town with the rugged Dolomites beyond shows the sun about to set (folio 69 verso; D32398).
The notes along the gutter perhaps refer to the horizontal Belluno view on folio 70 verso opposite (D32400), as there seems to be a slight continuation from the foreground of that drawing here.

Matthew Imms
September 2018

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Mountain Peaks and Sunset Clouds, Probably over the Dolomites beyond Belluno 1840 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2018, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-mountain-peaks-and-sunset-clouds-probably-over-the-dolomites-r1196635, accessed 01 April 2026.