From 1841 to 1844 Turner made annual tours to Switzerland, where he was inspired by the dramatic scenery around Lake Lucerne to produce a series of transcendent views of Swiss lakes and mountains. Chief among these are the three views of the Rigi mountain as seen from Lucerne, produced in 1842. Each shows the mountain at a different time of day and is characterised by a defining colour or tone (Dark, Blue or Red).

These finished watercolours are widely regarded as being among Turner’s finest works, and consequently among the very finest watercolours ever created. The Red Rigi has been in the National Gallery of Melbourne since 1947, but the other two Rigi views (The Blue Rigi and The Dark Rigi) were until last year in private hands, constituting the best of Turner’s late Swiss subjects still outside museum collections. Turner painted the Blue Rigi and Red Rigi first, and probably intended them to remain together as studies in contrasting atmospheric effects, but they were sold to separate collectors in 1842. HAJ Munro of Novar, an important patron who had bought The Red Rigi, encouraged the artist to paint a further view of the Rigi at dawn – The Dark Rigi – in which the cool blues and yellows served as an ideal counter to the warm red glow in the sunset view already in his collection.

The three watercolours very quickly acquired a legendary status among admirers of the artist. Even when considered alongside the many other astounding triumphs of his final burst of creativity, these works have long been considered a pinnacle of Turner’s artistic achievement. The art critic John Ruskin recognised that they also marked a significant climax in the later stages of Turner’s personal development, and suggested that they should be seen as a self-conscious final flourish, which distilled the incredible powers and inventiveness that Turner had used to transform the range and quality of watercolour painting. He remarked: ‘Turner had never made any drawings like these before, and never made any like them again … He is not showing his hand, in these; but his heart.’

The exhibition has united these extraordinary watercolours with Tate’s collection of Turner’s preparatory material for the Rigi series, including a sequence of sketchbooks and stunning watercolour studies that highlight the many hours of observation and contemplation that lie behind the finished works, and reveal the artist’s complete creative process.

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