Sunset From the Top of the Rigi

ca. 1844

Not on view

Returned to lender

This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.

Turner often painted at Mount Rigi, a mile-high peak in the Swiss Alps that is visible from Lake Lucerne, in the years between 1841 and 1844, but this view from the mountaintop is rare. In fact, Turner produced this work in his studio based on secondary sources for his client Francis McCracken, but the painting was rejected, possibly because McCracken was uncomfortable with the artist’s late style. Also part of the Turner Bequest in 1856, the painting was not seen again until 1974–75, when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in a show to mark the bicentennial of the artist’s birth.

Artwork Details

Overview

Exhibition History

Title: Sunset From the Top of the Rigi
Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner (British, London 1775–1851 London)
Date: ca. 1844
Geography: Country of Origin Great Britain
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 28 × 38 in. (71.1 × 96.5 cm)
Framed: 32 15/16 in. × 43 1/8 in. × 2 1/4 in. (83.6 × 109.6 × 5.7 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Tate: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art