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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Venice, Austria and Southern Germany ... > Rotterdam to Venice Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Mountains and Castles ?in the Tyrol Alps 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Mountains and Castles ?in the Tyrol Alps’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 25 Verso:
Mountains and Castles ?in the Tyrol Alps 1840
D32310
Turner Bequest CCCXX 25a
Pencil on white wove paper, 149 x 89 mm
Partial watermark ‘& C’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?W...erg]’ below centre
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
There are at least three similar views here, one above the other, with the one at the bottom inverted relative to the others. They show mountainous scenery with hilltop castles (likely ruined) and perhaps other buildings. It is unclear whether the top third comprises a single subject or two overlapping; it (or they) and the middle view, apparently inscribed with a scrawled place name, continue across folio 26 recto opposite.
A long sequence of sketches, mostly characterised as ‘Mountains’ by Finberg (with occasional identifications and transcriptions of the place names marked by the artist), lies between folios 7 recto and 76 recto (D32275–D32411).1 See the sketchbook’s Introduction for the likely overall route between Bregenz and Venice.2

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
See Finberg 1909, II, pp.1030–2.
2
See also Cecilia Powell, Turner in Germany, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1995, pp.65, 81 note 9.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Mountains and Castles ?in the Tyrol Alps 1840 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2018, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-mountains-and-castles-in-the-tyrol-alps-r1196544, accessed 26 April 2024.