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The Reichenbach Falls: Turner, Sherlock, and My Dizzying Encounter!

Prue Bishop Investigates: The Reichenbach Falls


Prue Bishop at the Reichenbach Falls ©Lumby-JOL7097

Prue Bishop at the Reichenbach Falls 

An Artist’s Perspective

Never mind artificial intelligence—there’s no substitute for an artist immersing themselves in a real landscape to fully understand their subject. This year marks the 250th birthday of J.M.W. Turner, who painted these famous falls after visiting in 1802. His on-the-spot sketches reveal that he clambered all around, viewing every possible angle, determined to communicate what it felt like to be there.

But while admiring the falls, it’s impossible not to recall a different kind of artistic legacy—Arthur Conan Doyle’s chilling description in The Final Problem (1893), where Sherlock Holmes meets his fateful end:

It is indeed, a fearful place. The torrent, swollen by the melting snow, plunges into a tremendous abyss, from which the spray rolls up like the smoke from a burning house. The shaft into which the river hurls itself is an immense chasm, lined by glistening coal-black rock, and narrowing into a creaming, boiling pit of incalculable depth, which brims over and shoots the stream onward over its jagged lip. The long sweep of green water roaring forever down, and the thick flickering curtain of spray hissing forever upward, turn a man giddy with their constant whirl and clamour.

Turner, decades ahead of Conan Doyle, had already captured this raw, dramatic energy in his 1810 watercolour Upper Fall of the Reichenbach with Rainbow, now housed at the Yale Center for British Art, which reopens on March 29 this year.

J.M.W. Turner, 1810, Upper Fall of the Reichenbach with Rainbow, Watercolour, 279x394mm, Yale Center for British Art

Image: J.M.W. Turner, 1810, Upper Fall of the Reichenbach with Rainbow, Watercolour, 279x394mm, Yale Center for British Art

A Closer Look at the Falls

In The Final Problem, Watson recalls leaving Holmes standing alone at the falls:

The path has been cut halfway around the fall to afford a complete view, but it ends abruptly, and the traveller has to return as he came. As I turned away, I saw Holmes, with his back against a rock and his arms folded, gazing down at the rush of the waters. It was the last that I was ever destined to see of him in this world.

Hearing that the water had been diverted for maintenance, I seized the chance to get a rare, closer look at the fascinating three-dimensional rock structures—though, inevitably, with Conan Doyle’s haunting words echoing in my mind. Even without the roaring water, the sheer drop was dizzying.

Now, with the water in full force once again, I strongly recommend that visitors stick to the official public paths and viewing platforms to take in the magnificence of the falls—from a safe distance!

As you look through the following images, also take a look at my sculptural watercolour paintings here in my Switzerland colleciton.

Images: 
Left (or first): Sidney Paget Illustration, The Strand Magazine, 1893 (Public Domain).
Right (or second): Prue Bishop at the Reichenbach Falls, Water Diverted for Maintenance ©Lumby-JOL7020 

Images above
J.M.W. Turner, The Great Fall of the Reichenbach, 1804

Watercolour on paper, 1022 x 689 mm, Courtesy of The Trustees of the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford, England.
Then: Prue Bishop Overlooking the Upper Reichenbach Falls (Dry) ©Lumby20151228-7051

Final Thoughts

Whether through Turner’s evocative brushstrokes or Conan Doyle’s dramatic storytelling, the Reichenbach Falls have long captured the imagination. Experiencing them in person—especially up close—is both awe-inspiring and humbling. Just don’t get too close… after all, Holmes wasn’t the only one to disappear into the mist.

For more go to: https://www.artandpublishing.ch/switzerlandcollection to see my Switzerland collection of paintings, or read more blog entries.

Prue Bishop February 2, 2025
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