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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Thomas Girtin The Lower Fall of the Reichenbach c.1794-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Thomas Girtin 1775–1802
Folio 2 Recto:
The Lower Fall of the Reichenbach c.1794–8
D36479
Turner Bequest CCCLXXIV 2
Pencil and grey and blue wash on white wove paper, 244 x 248 mm mounted on white cartridge paper, 368 x 480 mm
Inscribed in a later hand in pencil ‘“Lowest View of the Riquenbac”’ on mount, bottom right
Inscribed in pencil ‘2’ on mount, top right
Stamped in black ‘CCCLXXIV – 2’ on mount, bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is after the drawing by John Robert Cozens (1752–1797) from the ‘Payne Knight’ series formerly in the collections of Herbert Horne and Edward Marsh.1 Turner was to make spectacular watercolours of the Reichenbach after his own journey to Switzerland in 1802.2
1
Bell and Girtin 1935, pp.31–2 no.26.
2
See Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.341 nos.362, reproduced (Courtauld Gallery, London), 367, reproduced (Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford).
Verso:
Blank (laid down); the inscription (probably by Thomas Girtin in pencil) noted by Finberg and transcribed as the work’s title, ‘Lowest View of the Riquenbac’, is no longer apparent.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘The Lower Fall of the Reichenbach c.1794–8 by Joseph Mallord William Turner, Thomas Girtin’, catalogue entry, April 2012, 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-thomas-girtin-the-lower-fall-of-the-reichenbach-r1140548, accessed 19 April 2024.