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 Mountains c.1828-44

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Northern Italian or Swiss Mountains’ c.1828-44
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
?Northern Italian or Swiss Mountains c.1828–44
D34623
Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 211v
Pencil on white wove paper, 91 x 229 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil [... | ...] bottom left, ascending vertically, ‘[?L...]’ top left, ascending vertically, and ‘[... | ...]’ below right of centre, upside down
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
These vigorously rendered mountainous subjects, possibly drawn with the sheet turned all four ways, are unidentified despite Turner’s assertive inscriptions, but may be in the north of Italy or neighbouring Switzerland; see the Introduction to this section for further brief discussion and dating.
There is another mountain drawing on the recto (D34622; Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 211); the views were made on one half of a folded sheet, with D34620 (Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 210) opposite the present sketch and D34621 (Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 210v) on its verso.
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 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-northern-italian-or-swiss-mountains-r1183071, accessed 25 April 2024.