COLOUR STUDY

Colour palette

#CDB58F
#967753
#A69881
#E2CDA5
#BF9D6A
#F4E5C2

Approximate colour proportions

#CDB58F22.5%
#96775320.8%
#A6988115.9%
#E2CDA515.8%
#BF9D6A13.7%
#F4E5C211.3%

Estimated from six colour groups in the museum image, including visible paper or borders. Reproduction and lighting affect the result; these are image-area proportions, not pigment measurements.

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund · The Cleveland Museum of Art
Image licence: CC0 · Museum record & image source ↗

England, 19th century · 1845

Flüelen, from the Lake of Lucerne

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Date: 1845
Medium: watercolor with gouache and scratch-away
Dimensions: Sheet: 29.2 x 47.9 cm (11 1/2 x 18 7/8 in.)
Country / context: England
Movement / tradition: European and American art
Collection: The Cleveland Museum of Art
Attribution / role: Museum attribution
Pathway: European and American art ↗

FROM THE MUSEUM

In this watercolor, created late in his life, J.M.W. Turner depicted the small Swiss town of Flüelen and its shimmering reflection out of violet-colored mist. The work belongs to a group of highly finished works that the artist created during several summer trips to Switzerland between 1841 and 1845. The swirling vortex of light underscores the grandeur of nature, while the inclusion of figures going about their daily lives within the vastness of the Alps is a reminder of the reality of the scene. At the time he painted this view, Turner was considered the great master of Romantic landscape painting in England.

Collection text · The Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0

Place in the artist’s career

Compare the early cathedral study, the 1814 print and the 1845 Lucerne watercolour. Architectural detail, reproductive line and atmospheric wash involve different surfaces and working processes. Do not read the print’s monochrome as a loss of interest in colour: translation into a printed medium serves a different purpose from a coloured original.