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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Tour to the Alps 1836 > Val d'Aosta Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lausanne from the Valley of the Flon 1836

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lausanne from the Valley of the Flon’ 1836
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 53 Recto:
Lausanne from the Valley of the Flon 1836
D29136
Turner Bequest CCXCIII 53
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 190 mm
Inscribed by unknown hand in pencil ‘Geneva book’ bottom right
Inscribed, possibly by John Ruskin, in blue ink ‘53’ bottom left, inverted, and ‘320’ top left, inverted
Stamped in brown ‘CCXCIII 53’ top left, inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Here Lausanne Cathedral is seen from the valley of the Flon to the west, with the church of St Francois to the right, in a closer view than on the opposite page (D29135; Turner Bequest CCXCIII 52a). The figures sitting in the foreground give the impression of a relaxed and leisured city. The weather must have been warm and most of Turner’s sketches at Lausanne have an unhurried feel, although the town is so hilly that it must have involved considerable work to reach his viewpoints.

David Hill
June 2010

How to cite

David Hill, ‘Lausanne from the Valley of the Flon 1836 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-lausanne-from-the-valley-of-the-flon-r1144682, accessed 24 April 2024.