EARLY SWISS DRAWINGS.
9. Glacier and Source of the Arveiron, going up to the Mer de Glace. Exhibited R.A. 1803. 27” × 40".
10. The Great Fall of the Reichenbach; in the valley of Hasle, Switzerland. Signed and dated “J. M. W. Turner, R.A., 1804.” Exhibited R.A. 1815. 40” × 27". (Plate IX.)
11. The Passage of Mount St. Gothard; taken from the centre of the Teufels Broch (Devil’s Bridge), Switzerland. Signed and dated “J. M. W. Turner, R.A., 1804.” Exhibited R.A. 1815. 40½” × 27".
12. Blair’s Hut on the Montanvert, and Mer de Glace, Chamounix. 11” × 15".
13. The Valley of Chamounix. Signed and dated “J. M. W. Turner, R.A., p.p., 1809(?).” 11¼ × 15⅝". (Plate III.)
14. Lake of Thun. 11” × 15½".
15. The Staubbach, Valley of Lauterbrunnen. Signed and dated “J. M. W. Turner, 1809.” 11” × 15".
16. The Lake of Brienz: Moonlight. Signed “J. M. W. Turner, R.A.” 11” × 15½". (Plate XII.)
17. Bonneville, Savoy. 11” × 15⅜". (Plate I.)
18. Vevey, Lake of Geneva. 11” × 15½". (Christie’s, 1890; Sir Donald Currie.)
19. Sallenches. 11” × 15½". (Christie’s, 1890; Humphrey Roberts’s sale, May, 1908.)
20. Chamounix; Mer de Glace. 11” × 13½". (Christie’s, 1890; Humphrey Roberts’s sale, May, 1908.)
21. Lausanne and Lake of Geneva. 11¼” × 15½". Signed and dated “J. M. W. Turner, R.A., 1807.” (Christie’s, 1890; A. J. Forbes-Leith, Esq.)
22. Source of the Arveiron. 11” × 15½". (Christie’s, 1890; Turner House, Penarth, Pyke-Thompson Bequest.)
23. Lake of Lucerne, from Flüelen. 26½” × 39½". (Christie’s, 1890; Sir Donald Currie.)
24. MontBlanc, from the Vald’Aosta. 26” × 39½". (Christie’s, 1810; Sir Donald Currie.)
All these drawings were based on sketches made during Turner’s first tour in Savoy and Switzerland, in 1802. The earliest are dated 1803 and 1804, others were executed four or five years later, and a few may not have been completed till about 1815. They evidently owe a great deal to the inspiration of Richard Wilson and Nicholas Poussin, though we find in them that same large and masculine grip of natural form and structure which we see in pictures like the Bridgewater Sea-Piece and Calais Pier. In some of the drawings, indeed—the Great Fall of the Reichenbach and The Passage of Mount St. Gothard, for instance—the calm, unhurried elaboration of rock forms gives them a certain cold and prosaic air. Such drawings lack the gloomy majesty and lyrical intensity of feeling of paintings like The Trossachs, Conway Castle and Kilgarran Castle. For work of this kind a certain vagueness and generalisation of execution are necessary, and Turner was, after 1804, already beginning to feel his way towards a greater clarity and lucidity of expression than Wilson had attempted. The Farnley drawings represent, therefore, what I may call the aftermath of Turner’s early romantic mood. They are conceived under the influence of that taste for the gloomy, mysterious and picturesque fostered by Milton, Young’s “Night Thoughts,” and Walpole’s “Castle of Otranto”; but the fulness of representation and cheerful and varied colour of their execution are not altogether in harmony with their original intention. In these respects the original sketches of The Pass of St. Gothard in the National Gallery (LXXXV, 33, 34, and 35) are more satisfactory to the imagination than the larger and more elaborate drawing in the Farnley Collection. The absence of romantic passion is, however, atoned for by the stateliness and grandeur of the design.
The two drawings of this group which make the strongest appeal to my feelings are the moonlit view of The Lake of Brienz and the gloomy and majestic Glacier and Source of the Arveiron which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1803. Both these drawings are darker and more Wilsonesque in colour and effect than the others. The starkness and bigness of drawing in the group of pine trees in the foreground of the Glacier and Source of the Arveiron strike the imagination with Miltonic power and certainty. The blues in the Lake of Brienz have slightly faded, but the rich sombre harmony of the drawing is in no way impaired.
Another powerful and impressive drawing is the Lake of Thun. This differs in some important respects from the design engraved and published in the “Liber Studiorum.”
An altogether different note is struck in the graceful and charming subject of Bonneville. Here all is peace and serenity. The foreground is filled with the amenities of untroubled rural life, the distant blue and white peaks of the mountains making an excellent foil to the graceful foliage, white walls and bridge of the little town which nestles at their feet. The foreground, indeed, is only redeemed from insipidity by the sharp, firm drawing of the ripples and stones.