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 Three Sketches: The Glacier des Bossons near Chamonix; Going up to the Col du Bonhomme, and the Tré La Tête Glacier from Nant Bourant 1836

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Three Sketches: The Glacier des Bossons near Chamonix; Going up to the Col du Bonhomme, and the Tré La Tête Glacier from Nant Bourant’ 1836
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 22 Recto:
Three Sketches: The Glacier des Bossons near Chamonix; Going up to the Col du Bonhomme, and the Tré La Tête Glacier from Nant Bourant 1836
D29074
Turner Bequest CCXCIII 22
Pencil on white wove paper, 190 x 113 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Bossons’, ‘Mt Joly’, Tre Le Grand’, ‘Tre Tete Glacier’, ‘N Bourant’.
Inscribed, possibly by John Ruskin, in blue ink ‘22’ top left, running vertically, and ‘320’ top right, running vertically
Stamped in brown ‘CCXCIII 22’ top right, running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains three sketches, drawn with the sketchbook upright, working down the page from the outside edge:
i. A very quick impression, possibly taken on the move, looking up to the Glacier des ‘Bossons’.
ii. Ascending to the Col du Bonhomme, between Nant Bourant and the Chalets des Balme, the Bonhomme to the left, the Col du Bonhomme centre and ‘Mt Joly’ on the right.
iii. Looking up to the ‘Tre [La] Tete Glacier’ with ‘Tre La Grand[e]’ above from ‘N[ant] Bourant’. The specific record of Nant Bourant suggests that Turner might have stayed there. This would have been a halt for a party attempting to make the whole crossing from Chamonix to Courmayeur in two days, which would certainly account for the brevity and scarcity of sketches on this part of the route.

David Hill
June 2010

How to cite

David Hill, ‘Three Sketches: The Glacier des Bossons near Chamonix; Going up to the Col du Bonhomme, and the Tré La Tête Glacier from Nant Bourant 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-three-sketches-the-glacier-des-bossons-near-chamonix-going-r1144623, accessed 25 April 2024.