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 > St Gothard and Mont Blanc Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lake Brienz, Looking towards Ringgenberg Castle 1802

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lake Brienz, Looking towards Ringgenberg Castle’ 1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 55 Recto:
Lake Brienz, Looking towards Ringgenberg Castle 1802
D04647
Turner Bequest LXXV 55
Pencil, black and white chalks on white wove paper prepared with grey wash, 315 x 473 mm
Inscribed by Ruskin in blue ink ‘14’ bottom left
Stamped in black ‘LXXV 55’ bottom right, descending vertically
Blind-stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Turner’s label for this subject, numbered ‘14’ as is the drawing, reads ‘Lac de Brienz’. This sketch looks along the bank of Lake Brienz towards the Castle of Ringgenberg on its bluff on the north bank, and in the direction of Unterseen. A similar sketch from this sketchbook, also formerly known as a scene ‘In Savoy’ but inscribed by Turner ‘Brienz’ (D04648; Turner Bequest LXXV 56), shows much the same material from the opposite direction. Both must ultimately derive from Turner’s boat trip on the lake and boats are seen here close to the shore-line along with chalets at the water’s edge. Similar motifs, along with a somewhat closer and more detailed view of the castle appear in a watercolour made for Walter Fawkes in 1809 (Taft Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio)1 though this is most closely related to sketches actually made from Turner’s boat in the Rhine, Strassburg and Oxford sketchbook (Tate D04753, D04761; Turner Bequest 17a, 23a) and a more developed drawing, made after the event, in the Grenoble sketchbook (Tate D04539; Turner Bequest LXXIV 46). Turner’s excursion on the lake in 1802 proved fruitful, leading to five finished watercolours.
1
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, pp.343–4 no.388.
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
October 2011

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Lake Brienz, Looking towards Ringgenberg Castle 1802 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-lake-brienz-looking-towards-ringgenberg-castle-r1146511, accessed 16 April 2024.