Oil paint on canvas
Switzerland
Tate Collection
Works with images
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Turner Bequest
Oil paintings
Collection
Turner owned by Tate
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner-558" aria-label="More by Joseph Mallord William Turner" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Joseph Mallord William Turner</a>
Sunset Top Rigi
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
abstraction
Alps
colour
countries and continents
emotions, concepts and ideas
formal qualities
from recognisable sources
gestural
landscape
landscape
mist
mountain
natural features (non-UK)
non-representational
places
Rigi
sunset
Switzerland
times of the day
weather
<p>A couple of years after his visit to Switzerland, Turner appears to have begun work on two canvasses of the same size. This painting and its companion, <i>Lake Lucerne</i>, are smaller than most pictures destined for exhibition, but larger than the majority of Turner’s Venetian scenes.</p><p>It shows Turner laying down areas of bright colour in a particularly confident manner, which reflects the advances he was making in his watercolour painting.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2010</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
22 January 2007 – 25 March 2007
2007-03-25
22 January 2007 – 25 March 2007
2007-03-25
2007-01-22
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2007-01-22
JMW Turner: The Three Rigis
Collection based display
1 June 2007 – 15 March 2009
2009-03-15
1 June 2007
2007-06-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2007-06-01
Interrupted Visions: Oil Sketches 1820s-1840s
Collection based display
20 March 2009 – 27 July 2009
2009-07-27
20 March 2009
2009-03-20
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-03-20
Turner's Later Oil Sketches and Unfinished Works
Collection based display
5 August 2009 – 19 July 2010
2010-07-19
5 August 2009 – 19 July 2010
2010-07-19
2009-08-05
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-08-05
Turner Abroad
Collection based display
10 September 2014 – 20 September 2015
2015-09-20
10 September 2014 – 25 January 2015
2015-01-25
2014-09-10
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-09-10
Late Turner: Painting Set Free
Exhibition
1 March 2015 – 4 September 2016
2016-09-04
1 March 2016 – 4 September 2016
2016-09-04
2016-03-01
The Met Breuer (New York, USA)
2015-03-01
Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible
Loan-out
6 July 2019 – 2 May 2021
2021-05-02
6 July 2019 – 13 October 2019
2019-10-13
2019-07-06
Kunstmuseum (Luzern, Switzerland)
http://www.kunstmuseumluzern.ch
2019-07-06
The Sea and the Alps: Turner's Quest for the Sublime
Tate partnerships & programmes
16 October 2021 – 14 July 2023
2023-07-14
16 October 2021 – 6 March 2022
2022-03-06
2021-10-16
ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum (Aarhus, Denmark)
18 May 2022 – 11 September 2022
2022-09-11
2022-05-18
Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain)
http://www.mnac.es
8 October 2022 – 5 February 2023
2023-02-05
2022-10-08
National Gallery of Ireland (Dublin, Ireland)
http://www.nationalgallery.ie
3 March 2023 – 25 June 2023
2023-06-25
2023-03-03
Fondation Pierre Gianadda (Martigny, Switzerland)
2021-10-16
Turner Watercolours: Sun is God
Tate partnerships & programmes
28 October 2023 – 10 March 2024
2024-03-10
28 October 2023 – 10 March 2024
2024-03-10
2023-10-28
Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus (Munich, Germany)
2023-10-28
Turner at Lenbachhaus Munich
Loan-out
Sunset From the Top of the Rigi
support: 722 × 981 mm
frame: 836 × 1096 × 57 mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the <a href="/search?gid=999999781" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Turner Bequest</a> 1856
<p>A couple of years after his visit to Switzerland, Turner appears to have begun work on two canvasses of the same size.  This painting and its companion, <i>Lake Lucerne</i>, are smaller than most pictures destined for exhibition, but larger than the majority of Turner’s Venetian scenes.
<br/>
<br/>It shows Turner laying down areas of bright colour in a particularly confident manner, which reflects the advances he was making in his watercolour painting.
<br/></p>

Display caption
2010-02-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>522. </b>[<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-sunset-from-the-top-of-the-rigi-n05486" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05486</span></a>]<b> Mountain Landscape</b> <i>c.</i> 1840–5</p>
<p>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (5486)</p>
<p>Canvas, 28 × 38 (71 × 96·5)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (140, one of 2 each 3'2" × 2'4" with No. 521; identified 1946 by a chalk number on back); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1947.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> R.A. 1974–5 (570, repr.).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Davies 1946, pp. 159, 188; Butlin 1981, p. 45.</p>
<p>Companion to No. 521 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-lake-lucerne-the-bay-of-uri-from-above-brunnen-n05476" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05476</span></a>]. The viewpoint of this picture, apparently looking down over a valley that runs in diagonally from the lower right-hand corner, is close to that of the National Gallery of Victoria's <i>Val d' Aosta</i> (No. 520).</p>
<p>As in the case of the companion picture, there are signs that other pictures were leant against it in Turner's studio while the paint was still not completely dry. There are paint-losses down the left-hand edge, now restored.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, <i>The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner</i>, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-07-21T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction Alps colour countries and continents emotions, concepts and ideas formal qualities from recognisable sources gestural landscape landscape mist mountain natural features (non-UK) non-representational places Rigi sunset Switzerland times of the day weather