'The Entrance to the Allée Blanche above Courmayeur, Mont Blanc in the Distance', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

The Entrance to the Allée Blanche above Courmayeur, Mont Blanc in the Distance

From France, Savoy, Piedmont Sketchbook

Turner Bequest LXXIII

Date 1802

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 138 x 215 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Reference

D04465

Turner Bequest LXXIII 65

View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms

Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the France, Savoy, Piedmont Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 65 Recto:

The Entrance to the Allée Blanche above Courmayeur, Mont Blanc in the Distance 1802

D04465
Turner Bequest LXXIII 65

Pencil on grey-buff laid paper, 138 x 215 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Fort by ye White Valley’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LXXIII 65’ top right, running vertically

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

For Courmayeur, see folio 62 verso of this sketchbook (D04460). The various sketches made nearby in the book are listed with it. Here, as identified by David Hill in correspondence with the author,1 Turner is looking back from the direction of Courmayeur to the village of Entreves and the entrance of the Allée Blanche – his ‘White Valley’. The Allée is close to the base of the Miage glacier. See especially the verso of this leaf (D04466) and double page spreads, folios 66 verso–67 (D04468–D04469) and 67 verso–68 (D04470–D04471) for other sketches made nearby.

David Blayney Brown
June 2004

Letter to David Blayney Brown, 4 April 2004, Tate catalogue files.

Read this catalogue entry in full

This catalogue entry is part of: David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, December 2012.