Lucerne: Moonlight
J. M. W. Turner·1843
Historical Context
Lucerne: Moonlight from 1843 captures the Swiss lakeside city under nocturnal illumination during one of Turner's late Continental tours. Switzerland's mountains and lakes provided subjects of sublime natural grandeur that pushed his atmospheric painting to new extremes. The work was shown at the Royal Academy, where Turner sent work consistently for fifty years; his exhibits provoked both admiration and controversy for their progressive dissolution of conventional form into atmosphere.
Technical Analysis
Turner renders the moonlit scene with subtle luminosity, using reflected light on the lake and the ethereal glow of moonlight to create a nocturnal composition of remarkable delicacy.
Look Closer
- ◆Look at the moonlight reflecting on Lake Lucerne — Turner renders the Swiss lake's nocturnal surface with the silvery, cool quality of mountain moonlight quite different from his Mediterranean golden scenes.
- ◆Notice how the town of Lucerne is visible on the lakeside, its buildings caught in moonlight — Turner uses the vertical accents of towers and rooftops as dark shapes within the overall lunar luminosity.
- ◆Observe the Rigi mountain visible across the lake — the famous Swiss peak that Turner painted obsessively in different lights, here a dark mass against the nocturnal sky.
- ◆Find where the moonlight path on the water's surface creates a vertical band of brightness leading toward the moon's position above — Turner's composition directs the eye through the nocturnal landscape.
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