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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Northern Italy or Switzerland c.1828-44 > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?A Northern Italian or Swiss Village; Views among Mountains c.1828-44

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?A Northern Italian or Swiss Village; Views among Mountains’ c.1828-44
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
?A Northern Italian or Swiss Village; Views among Mountains c.1828–44
D34565
Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 181
Pencil on white wove paper, 230 x 91 mm
Inscribed by Turner ‘[?S...]’ top left
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram right of centre
Inscribed in red ink ‘181’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCXLIV 181’ top right, ascending vertically
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
These mountainous subject, drawn with the sheet turned various ways, are unidentified, but may be in the north of Italy or neighbouring Switzerland; see the Introduction to this section for further brief discussion and dating. There appears to be a place name scrawled above the roofs of the village. It and a view of a pass, drawn with the sheet turned horizontally, are framed by pencil lines.
There is another mountain drawing on the verso (D34566; Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 181v); the views were made on one half of a folded sheet, with D34568 (Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 182v) opposite the present sketch and D34567 (Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 182) on its recto.
Finberg noted: ‘(Nos. [Turner Bequest CCCXLIV] 174–226 were among the contents of a parcel endorsed by Mr. [John] Ruskin, – “B. 2. Forty-eight pieces of paper, some double or 4-ple. Pencil outline, same class as B. 1.”).’1

Matthew Imms
February 2016

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.1123.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?A Northern Italian or Swiss Village; Views among Mountains c.1828–44 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-northern-italian-or-swiss-village-views-among-mountains-r1183052, accessed 26 April 2024.