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 Lake among Mountains, Perhaps Lago di Santa Croce or Lago Morta near Belluno 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Lake among Mountains, Perhaps Lago di Santa Croce or Lago Morta near Belluno’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 74 Recto:
A Lake among Mountains, Perhaps Lago di Santa Croce or Lago Morta near Belluno 1840
D32407
Turner Bequest CCCXX 74
Pencil on white wove paper, 89 x 149 mm
Partial watermark ‘& C’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘74’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCXX – 74’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The main drawing was made with the page turned horizontally. The setting may be Lago di Santa Croce (see folio 72 verso; D32404) or Lago Morta to its south (see folio 73 verso; D32406), south-east of Belluno. There appears to be a second, overlapping sketch of crags or ruins at right-angles to the left.
The views on the verso and folio 75 recto (D32408–D32409) may show aspects of the same rugged scene. 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 Lake among Mountains, Perhaps Lago di Santa Croce or Lago Morta near Belluno 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-lake-among-mountains-perhaps-lago-di-santa-croce-or-lago-r1196641, accessed 20 September 2024.