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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > First Italian Tour 1819-20 > Return from Italy Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Two Views of Mountains within the French Alps 1820

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Two Views of Mountains within the French Alps’ 1820
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 18 Verso:
Two Views of Mountains within the French Alps 1820
D16676
Turner Bequest CXCII 18 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 98 x 128 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil (see main text)
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains two very rough, schematic drawings of mountainous landscape as well as a lengthy inscription concerning the atmospheric conditions of the scene. Turner’s writing is partially illegible in places but can be transcribed as follows: ‘Snow in Shade and Sky in Light Shade of Blue scarcely | a Shadw but warm [?Rep]. The Snow white warmed by the sun | throws up a cloud of Vapour. like V – [where] opposite of the | Sun is the shadow by the cloud is [?deeper] [?Purple] the Half Shade | lighter than the Sky’.
The location of the views is unidentified although they relate to Turner’s return journey through the French Alps between Piedmont and Savoy, and are likely to depict scenes on the north (French) side of the Mont Cenis pass.

Nicola Moorby
April 2013

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Two Views of Mountains within the French Alps 1820 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2013, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-two-views-of-mountains-within-the-french-alps-r1142575, accessed 09 May 2024.