JMW Turner: The Lucerne Sketchbook (2018)

Turner s (1775 1851) sketchbooks were private things which he kept to himself. They might live for some time in his coat pockets or travel bags, to be pulled out as need arose. In the studio, they served as memory banks for future work. The sketchbook reproduced within this unique publication includes watercolour sketches Turner made on his trip to Lucerne in Switzerland capturing the beautiful Rigi mountain, a landscape he returned to again and again. The works contained here were made after his famous The Blue Rigi, Sunrise 1842, and reveal his masterful hand as he portrays the ever-changing moods of the Swiss-Alps, tantalisingly depicted through rainy showers, sunbeams filtering through clouds and rainbows cast across the mountains.