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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Thomas Girtin On the Reichenbach c.1794-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Thomas Girtin 1775–1802
Folio 1 Recto:
On the Reichenbach c.1794–8
D36478
Turner Bequest CCCLXXIV 1
Pencil and grey and blue-grey wash on white wove paper, 244 x 252 mm mounted on white cartridge paper, 368 x 480 mm
Inscribed in a later hand in pencil ‘“View of the Riquenbac”’ on mount, bottom right
Inscribed in pencil ‘1’ on mount, top right
Stamped in black ‘CCCLXXIV – 1’ on mount, bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This was copied from a drawing by John Robert Cozens (1752–1797) in the ‘Payne Knight’ series, now lost.1 Turner was to make spectacular watercolours of the Reichenbach after his own journey to Switzerland in 1802.2
1
See Bell and Girtin 1935, pp.30–1 under no.20.
2
See Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.341 nos.362, reproduced (Courtauld Gallery, London), 367, reproduced (Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford).
Verso:
Blank (laid down); the inscription (probably by Thomas Girtin in pencil) noted by Finberg and transcribed as the work’s title, ‘View of the Riquenbac’, is no longer apparent.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘On the Reichenbach c.1794–8 by Joseph Mallord William Turner, Thomas Girtin’, catalogue entry, April 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-thomas-girtin-on-the-reichenbach-r1140547, accessed 28 March 2024.