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 > Turin, Como, Lugarno, Maggiore ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Two Sketches of the Gondo Ravine 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Two Sketches of the Gondo Ravine’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 88 Verso:
Two Sketches of the Gondo Ravine 1819
D14315
Turner Bequest CLXXIV 87 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 186 x 111 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘[?abel...]’ within centre of upper sketch
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s route to the Simplon Pass took him through the Gondo Ravine (Gondoschlucht), a narrow mountainous passage immediately to the west of the village of Gondo, which represented one of the most dramatic points on the road between Domodossola and Brig (generally considered to represent the start and finish of the Simplon road). This page contains two sketches of the Gondoschlucht from the road to the east. The upper vista depicts the road winding along the floor of the ravine with the Diveria river on the left, while the lower vista includes the same distinctive rock profile as in folio 89 (D14315; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 88).
For a general discussion of Turner’s journey to the Simplon Pass see the introduction to the sketchbook, and also the introduction to the Passage of the Simplon sketchbook (Tate, Turner Bequest CXCIV).

Nicola Moorby
January 2013

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Two Sketches of the Gondo Ravine 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2013, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-two-sketches-of-the-gondo-ravine-r1142836, accessed 25 April 2024.