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 > Passage of the Simplon Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Road Towards the Simplon Pass 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Road Towards the Simplon Pass’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 4 Recto:
The Road Towards the Simplon Pass 1819
D16896
Turner Bequest CXCIV 4
Pencil and grey watercolour wash on white wove paper, 121 x 195 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘4’, bottom left, descending left-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CXCIV 4’ bottom left, descending left-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s journey to the Simplon Pass was documented by several rough pencil sketches on pages prepared with a grey watercolour wash. The view on this sheet depicts part of the road curving round a bend in the middle distance towards the steep heights of the mountains. The artist has employed scratching out to denote snow covering the peaks in the background.

Nicola Moorby
April 2011

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘The Road Towards the Simplon Pass 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2011, 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-the-road-towards-the-simplon-pass-r1132771, accessed 20 April 2024.