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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > First Italian Tour 1819-20 > Paris, France, Savoy 2 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Roman Bridge on the Voie Sarde 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Roman Bridge on the Voie Sarde’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 72 Verso:
The Roman Bridge on the Voie Sarde 1819
D14111
Turner Bequest CLXXIII 72 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 185 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Although this sketch is very slight the structure near the bottom right-hand corner of the composition can be identified as the ancient Roman single-arched bridge which stands across the River Guiers Vif on the Voie Sarde (Sardinian Way) near Les Échelles. This historic road which follows the course of a natural canyon in the Chartreuse Mountains and which formed an important part of the trading route between Lyon and Turin, had been renovated during the seventeenth century but was first chartered by the Romans. Until 1860, the bridge marked part of the border between France and Savoy. Turner visited the site as part of his journey east through Savoy to Chambéry and the Mont Cenis pass. For further sketches see folios 70 and 72 (D14106 and D14110).

Nicola Moorby
March 2013

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘The Roman Bridge on the Voie Sarde 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2013, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-roman-bridge-on-the-voie-sarde-r1142970, accessed 26 April 2024.