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 Mountains, near the Simplon Pass 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Mountains, near the Simplon Pass’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 10 Recto:
Mountains, near the Simplon Pass 1819
D16908
Turner Bequest CXCIV 10
Pencil and grey watercolour wash on white wove paper, 121 x 195 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘10’, bottom left, descending left-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CXCIV 10’ bottom left, descending left-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner executed most of his sketches documenting the mountainous landscape near 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 granulation of the wash also obscures the details. Other than the jagged peaks near the top left-hand corner the view is indecipherable and 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-r1132783, accessed 26 April 2024.