Upper Fall of the Reichenbach: Rainbow - YCBA Collections Search

Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1775–1851, British, Upper Fall of the Reichenbach: Rainbow, 1810

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Creator:: Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1775–1851
Title:: Upper Fall of the Reichenbach: Rainbow
Date:: 1810
Materials & Techniques:: Watercolor, gouache, graphite, and scraping out on medium, slightly textured, cream wove paper
Dimensions:: Sheet: 11 x 15 1/2 inches (27.9 x 39.4 cm)
Credit Line:: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:: Public Domain
Accession Number:: B1977.14.4702
Classification:: Drawings & Watercolors
Collection:: Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:: cattle | dog (animal) | geology | Grand Tour | landscape | rainbow | science | shepherdess | waterfall
Associated Places:: Bern | Europe | Reichenbach | Schweiz | Switzerland
Access:: On view
Link:: https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:5491
Export:: XML
IIIF Manifest:: JSON

These watercolors were produced during two different European tours, one when Turner was consolidating his mature technique around 1810, and the other when this was giving way to his final, more overtly expressive style in the late 1830s. Upper Fall of the Reichenbach: Rainbow illustrates Turner’s use of special techniques for conveying visual effects. Particularly notable is the way he has used scratching out to highlight the dramatic spray of the vertiginous waterfall. This was done by scraping through drying paints, usually with his thumbnail, which he kept specially sharpened for the purpose. Monaco at Sunset from the Southwest was produced on a tour of the Mediterranean coast. The vivid palette and dense bodycolor are typical of the artist’s later watercolors but have few parallels in the works of his contemporaries.

Gallery label for J. M. W. Turner: Romance and Reality (Yale Center for British Art, March - 29, 2025 - July 27, 2025)

J.M.W. Turner: Romance & Reality (Yale Center for British Art, 2025-03-29 - 2025-07-27) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

The Critique of Reason : Romantic Art, 1760–1860 (Yale University Art Gallery, 2015-03-06 - 2015-07-26) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Papermaking and The Art of Watercolor in Eighteenth-Century Britain: Paul Sandby's "View of…Mr. Whatman's Turkey Mill" (Yale Center for British Art, 2006-02-22 - 2006-06-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

William Wordsworth and the Age of English Romanticism (New York Public Library, 1987-10-31 - 1988-01-02) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Presences of Nature - British Landscape 1780-1830 (Yale Center for British Art, 1982-10-20 - 1983-02-27) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Turner and the Sublime (British Museum, 1981-05-15 - 1981-09-20) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Turner and the Sublime (Yale Center for British Art, 1981-02-11 - 1981-04-19) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Turner and the Sublime (Art Gallery of Ontario, 1980-11-01 - 1981-01-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

English Landscape (Paul Mellon Collection) 1630-1850 (Yale Center for British Art, 1977-04-19 - 1977-07-17) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

British Art at Yale, Apollo, vol.105, April 1977, p. 275, N1 .A54 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Theresa Fairbanks-Harris, Looking at Paper: A Conservator's Treatment Approach Informed by Historical Papermaking Processes, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland, 2019, p. 81, fig. 27, fig. 28 (detail), V 2849 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Theresa Fairbanks-Harris, Papermaking and the art of watercolor in eighteenth-century Britain : Paul Sandby and the Whatman Paper Mill, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2006, pp. 15-17, figs. 12 and 13, NJ18.Sa56 A15 V5 2006 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Louis Hawes, Presences of Nature : British Landscape, 1780-1830, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1982, pp. 15, 122, no. I.18, pl. 12, ND1354.4 H38 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Graham Reynolds, English Landscape 1630-1850, Apollo, vol.105, April 1977, p. 275, N1 A54 105:2 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Graham Reynolds, Turner, Thames & Hudson, London, 2020, fig. 78, NJ18.T85 R49 2020 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Andrew Wilton, The life and work of J.M.W. Turner, Academy Editions, London, 1979, p. 344, no. 396, NJ18 T85 +W577 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

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