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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Switzerland 1802 > Lake Thun Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Wellhorn and Rosenlaui Glacier from below Rosenlaui 1802

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Wellhorn and Rosenlaui Glacier from below Rosenlaui’ 1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 43 Recto:
The Wellhorn and Rosenlaui Glacier from below Rosenlaui 1802
D04700
Turner Bequest LXXVI 43
Pencil on white laid paper, 156 x 201 mm
Inscribed by Turner in brown ink ‘F’ bottom left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘43’ bottom right, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘LXXVI 43’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner crossed the Great Scheidegg pass from Grindelwald to Meiringen, for which see folios 45, 46 of this sketchbook (D04702, D04703), then descended to the valley of Rosenlaui and the Reichanbach falls. Here, as identified by David Hill, he is looking back up the valley towards the Wellhorn at centre – with the mid-afternoon sun directly above – the Rosenlaui glacier and Barglistock to left and the Wetterhorn at right. As Finberg noted, the initial ‘F’ would indicate a commission from Walter Fawkes for a finished version of this subject. This was never carried out and conceivably the leaf was initialled in error, the intention being to reserve the subject on folio 41 (D04698) which is not marked in this way but was worked up for Fawkes.
Verso:
Blank
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘592’ top left, descending vertically

David Blayney Brown
March 2004

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘The Wellhorn and Rosenlaui Glacier from below Rosenlaui 1802 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2004, 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-wellhorn-and-rosenlaui-glacier-from-below-rosenlaui-r1133175, accessed 23 April 2024.