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 A Castle among Mountains ?in the Tyrol Alps 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Castle among Mountains ?in the Tyrol Alps’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 26 Recto:
A Castle among Mountains ?in the Tyrol Alps 1840
D32311
Turner Bequest CCCXX 26
Pencil on white wove paper, 89 x 149 mm
Partial watermark ‘& C’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?M...] M[...]’ bottom right, upside down
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘26’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCXX – 26’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The main drawing, made with the page turned horizontally, shows a tower or castle in a rugged setting. At right-angles to the left and at the bottom centre are continuations of similar mountain views from folio 25 verso opposite (D32310). It is unclear whether the inverted inscription at the gutter, presumably noting a place name, relates to that page or this.
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, ‘A Castle among Mountains ?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-a-castle-among-mountains-in-the-tyrol-alps-r1196545, accessed 25 April 2024.