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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Italy c.1828-43 > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Tower on Rocks above an ?Italian Mountain Pass c.1828-43

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Tower on Rocks above an ?Italian Mountain Pass’ c.1828-43
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
A Tower on Rocks above an ?Italian Mountain Pass c.1828–43
D33802
Turner Bequest CCCXLI 120
Pencil and gouache on grey wove paper, 142 x 190 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Am[...]’ top right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Inscribed in red ink ‘120’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCXLI – 120’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This rugged scene of a tower overlooking a valley is unidentified, but may be Italian or perhaps Swiss; see the Introduction to this section for further brief discussion and dating. Turner’s scrawled inscription is presumably a place name, but Finberg’s tentative reading of ‘Amichagla’1 does little to advance the identification.
1
Finberg 1909, II, p.1069.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed by John Ruskin in pencil ‘233 | O’ bottom right.

Matthew Imms
February 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Tower on Rocks above an ?Italian Mountain Pass c.1828–43 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-tower-on-rocks-above-an-italian-mountain-pass-r1183006, accessed 19 April 2024.