The Blue Rigi

The Blue Rigi, Sunrise, better known as The Blue Rigi, is an 1842 watercolour painting by British artist J. M. W. Turner. It has been described as "one of Turner's most perfect watercolours". It was acquired by the Tate Gallery in 2007 for £4.95m, matching the price achieved at auction in 2006, then the largest sum paid by the Tate for a single artwork. It is one of several variations of the Rigi mountain painted by Turner in 1842, after a visit to Switzerland the previous summer, including The Red Rigi, blushed by the evening sun, and The Dark Rigi. Many preparatory sketches are held by the Tate as part of the Turner Bequest.

The Blue Rigi depicts the Rigi mountain in central Switzerland, viewed from the southwest across Lake Lucerne. The "Queen of Mountains" is blue in the early morning light, wreathed by veils of morning mist. The tonality is built up with layers of colour wash, with fine detail added through cross-hatching with a fine brush. The planet Venus glints in the yellow morning sky above, where paint has been scratched out with a fingernail to reveal the bright white ground. In the left foreground, drawn in with pen and brown ink, ducks can be seen rising from the lake, alarmed by a gunshot and chased by two dogs, to the right foreground.

Turner painted several variations of the Rigi in 1842, following a visit to Switzerland the previous summer. Completed examples include The Red Rigi, blushed by the evening sun, originally sold to H.A.J. Munro of Novar and now held by the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, and The Dark Rigi, an early morning view, in a private collection. Many preparatory sketches are held by the Tate as past of the Turner Bequest.

Victorian art critic John Ruskin may have been the first to describe the different members of Turner's Rigi series by their colours. The different colours and moods of Turner's Rigi series draws parallels that of Hokusai's prints of Mount Fuji, Cézanne's paintings of Mont Sainte-Victoire, and Monet's series of Rouen Cathedral.

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