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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Tour to the Alps 1836 > Val d'Aosta Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Five Sketches: Two Views on the Col du Bonhomme; Mont Blanc from the Col de la Seigne, and Two Views of Arvier in the Val d'Aosta 1836

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Five Sketches: Two Views on the Col du Bonhomme; Mont Blanc from the Col de la Seigne, and Two Views of Arvier in the Val d'Aosta’ 1836
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 21 Recto:
Five Sketches: Two Views on the Col du Bonhomme; Mont Blanc from the Col de la Seigne, and Two Views of Arvier in the Val d’Aosta 1836
D29072
Turner Bequest CCXCIII 21
Pencil on white wove paper, 190 x 113 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Bonhom’
Inscribed, possibly by John Ruskin, in blue ink ‘21’ top left, running vertically, and ‘320’ top right, running vertically
Stamped in brown ‘CCXCIII 21’ top right, running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains five sketches, drawn with the sketchbook in the upright position, working down the page from the outside edge as follows:
i. Looking from the Col du Bonhomme towards the Croix du Bonhomme.
ii. Going up to the Col du ‘Bonhom[me]’ from the Plan des Dames.
iii. Mont Blanc from the Col de la Seigne, looking down into the Val Veni with the Pyramides de Calcaire to the left and Le Chetif to the right. Turner recorded a similar scene, but from a viewpoint further to the right, in a watercolour (private collection).1
iv. A thumbnail sketch of Arvier in the Val d’Aosta, similar to that shown on a later page of the sketchbook (D29076; Turner Bequest CCXCIII 23).
v. A second thumbnail sketch of Arvier.

David Hill
June 2010

1
Christie’s sale, London, 8 July 1997, lot 75, as ‘Scene in the Val d’Aosta’.

How to cite

David Hill, ‘Five Sketches: Two Views on the Col du Bonhomme; Mont Blanc from the Col de la Seigne, and Two Views of Arvier in the Val d’Aosta 1836 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-five-sketches-two-views-on-the-col-du-bonhomme-mont-blanc-r1144621, accessed 24 April 2024.