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 The Gondo Ravine 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Gondo Ravine’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 89 Recto:
The Gondo Ravine 1819
D14316
Turner Bequest CLXXIV 88
Pencil on white wove paper, 186 x 111 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘snow’ within sketch, top right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘88’ top left, ascending left-hand edge and ‘284’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CLXXIV 88’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
 
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 depicts a view of the Gondoschlucht from the road to the east. Turner has used the full height of the page in order to convey a sense of the dramatic height and scale of the landscape. The same distinctive rock profile on the left-hand side of the composition can be seen on folio 88 verso (D14314; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 87a).
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, ‘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-the-gondo-ravine-r1142837, accessed 26 April 2024.