Lake of Geneva from Montreux
J. M. W. Turner·1810
Historical Context
Lake of Geneva from Montreux, exhibited around 1810, shows the western end of Lake Léman from the Vaud shore town of Montreux, with the Savoy Alps rising across the water into dramatic Alpine summits. Turner had visited the area in 1802 and absorbed the tremendous combination of reflective lake, Alpine scenery, and Mediterranean-tinged southern light that distinguishes the Geneva region from the more severe Swiss interior. Lake Geneva had exceptional literary associations by the time Turner painted this large canvas: Byron had set the Prisoner of Chillon at the nearby castle of Chillon, and the region was already celebrated as the site of Rousseau's Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse. Turner's large-scale treatment — over a hundred centimetres wide — reflects his ambition to give Alpine landscape subjects the same dignity as his classical history paintings, using the lake's panoramic scale to combine the natural sublime with the warm atmospheric luminosity that would define his mature Alpine style.
Technical Analysis
Turner renders the lake and surrounding mountains with atmospheric depth, using the water's reflective surface and the mountain's mass to create a composition of serene yet powerful natural grandeur.
Look Closer
- ◆Look at Lake Geneva from the elevated viewpoint above Montreux — Turner renders the extraordinary panorama from the Swiss shore, the lake stretching toward Geneva between the Alps and the Jura.
- ◆Notice the scale of the Alps rising above the lake on the right bank — the Dents du Midi or other Alpine peaks that create the dramatic backdrop to the lake's extraordinary beauty.
- ◆Observe the quality of Swiss lake light — clear and luminous, with the Alpine air's characteristic transparency that Turner found quite different from the humid English or Italian atmosphere.
- ◆Find the French shore on the far side of the lake — barely visible through the atmospheric perspective that Turner uses to convey the lake's great width, the distant shore dissolving into blue haze.
.jpg&width=600)