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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Valley and Mountains, near the Simplon Pass 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 13 Verso:
Valley and Mountains, near the Simplon Pass 1819
D16915
Turner Bequest CXCIV 13 a
Pencil and grey watercolour wash on white wove paper, 121 x 195 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘St[...]’ bottom centre left of sketch
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The scene depicted in this sketch represents a view on the road to the Simplon Pass between Domodossola and Brig. The precise location remains unidentified but the composition includes a group of houses in the valley in the central middle distance. At the top of the sheet the artist has scratched through part of the grey watercolour wash in order to describe the snow-capped peaks of the distant mountains.
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, ‘Valley and 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-valley-and-mountains-near-the-simplon-pass-r1132790, accessed 28 March 2024.