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.1840-4

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Northern Italian or Swiss Mountains’ c.1840-4
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
?Northern Italian or Swiss Mountains c.1840–4
D34626
Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 213v
Pencil on white wove paper, 153 x 95 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?T... | ...]’ towards top right, and ‘4’ and ‘3 [...]’ below left of centre, upside down
Partial watermark ‘atman | 837’
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
These mountainous subjects, drawn with the sheet turned both 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. The views include castle towers and buildings or a bridge which Turner has annotated with numbers, perhaps in relation arches or other architectural features. The full watermark would evidently have been ‘J Whatman | 1837’, matching the ‘J Wh | 1’ on another sheet in this section (Tate D34602; Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 200), and precluding a date before Turner’s being in the region in 1840.
There are other mountain views on the recto (D34625; Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 213).
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.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-mountains-r1183073, accessed 18 April 2024.