Lake Lucerne: The Bay of Uri, from Brunnen
- Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner
- Date: c.1841–2
- Medium: Watercolour on paper
- Dimensions: support: 244 x 299 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Lake Lucerne: The Bay of Uri, from Brunnen” by Joseph Mallord William Turner. Painted around 1841‑42, it’s a delicate watercolour that captures the mist‑shrouded shoreline of Lake Lucerne as seen from the town of Brunnen. Turner, known for turning ordinary scenes into dramatic atmospheres, plays with light and haze here. The mountains of the Swiss Alps rise in the distance, their peaks softened by the same vapor that cloaks the water’s edge, giving the composition an almost dreamlike quality.
Notice the little boat in the foreground—Turner uses it to anchor the scale, a subtle reminder that these grand natural forces are navigated by everyday people. The colour palette is restrained, dominated by cool blues and greys, with flashes of ochre reflecting the sky. It’s a small work, only about 24 by 30 centimeters, but the precision of his strokes shows why he was called the “master of light.” This piece entered the national collection as part of the Turner Bequest in 1856, cementing its place among the most celebrated watercolours of the nineteenth century.
See it in person
Lake Lucerne: The Bay of Uri, from Brunnen is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
