J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

This page contains two drawings depicting views amid the mountains, probably relating to Turner’s return crossing through the Pass of Mont Cenis. Although the sketches are rather rough and schematic, the artist has embellished them with inscriptions concerning the colours and atmospheric effects of the Alpine landscape, noting for example that the snow was a ‘warm yellow’ and that this colour was ‘reflected in the stream’. The upper prospect also contains two male figures (or perhaps two variant views of the same person) whose dress suggests that they might be a cantonnier, people employed to look after the roads and assist travellers within the Alps.