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 ?Northern Italian or Swiss Mountain Views with a Tower c.1840-4

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Northern Italian or Swiss Mountain Views with a Tower’ c.1840-4
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
?Northern Italian or Swiss Mountain Views with a Tower c.1840–4
D34596
Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 197
Pencil on white wove paper, 153 x 95 mm
Partial watermark ‘J Wh | 1’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?all ...]’ at centre
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram above and below centre
Inscribed in red ink ‘197’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCXLIV 197’ top right, ascending vertically
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
These three mountainous subjects, divided by horizontal pencil lines, are unidentified, but may be in the north of Italy or neighbouring Switzerland; the middle one, with a tower on a rock and a house in the valley, is relatively detailed, and Turner’s note across it may record an effect of colour or light. See the Introduction to this section for further brief discussion and dating. The full watermark would evidently have been ‘J Whatman | 1837’, matching the ‘atman | 837’ on another sheet in this section (Tate D34563, D34594; Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 180, 180v), precluding a date before Turner’s being in the region in 1840.
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, ‘?Northern Italian or Swiss Mountain Views with a Tower c.1840–4 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-northern-italian-or-swiss-mountain-views-with-a-tower-r1183065, accessed 19 April 2024.