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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Mountains, near the Simplon Pass 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 9 Verso:
Mountains, near the Simplon Pass 1819
D16907
Turner Bequest CXCIV 9 a
Pencil and grey watercolour wash on white wove paper, 121 x 195 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘[?Red] Cloud’ top left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner executed most of his sketches documenting the mountainous landscape to and from the Simplon Pass on sheets prepared with a grey watercolour wash. The dark and uneven nature of this ground often renders these pencil drawings difficult to see, and in this instance, the only clear details are the sharp, triangular peak of a mountain near the top left-hand corner, and the trunk of a tree interrupting the bottom left-hand foreground. The precise location of the view is impossible to determine.
For a general discussion of Turner’s expedition to the Simplon Pass see the introduction to the sketchbook.

Nicola Moorby
April 2011

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Mountains, near 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-mountains-near-the-simplon-pass-r1132782, accessed 28 March 2024.