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 Four Sketches on the River Rhône at Geneva 1836

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Four Sketches on the River Rhône at Geneva’ 1836
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 55 Recto:
Four Sketches on the River Rhône at Geneva 1836
D29140
Turner Bequest CCXCIII 55
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 190 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘11’, ‘12’, ‘3’ [twice]
Inscribed, possibly by John Ruskin, in blue ink ‘55’ top left, running vertically, and 320’ top right, running vertically
Stamped in brown ‘CCXCIII 55’ top right, running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains four quick sketches, drawn (mostly) with the page in the upright position, working down the page from the outer edge:
i. A few unintelligible lines, apparently continuing another subject but not obviously related to anything nearby in the sketchbook.
ii. The River Rhône below Geneva, looking back towards the city, inscribed lower right ‘11’.
iii. Geneva from St Gervais, inscribed above right ‘12’, and below right ‘3’.
iv. Geneva from above the Quai du Seujet, with the old pumping station on the Rhône in the foreground, inscribed below right ‘3’. Turner sketched very similar material, probably on the same excursion, on another page in this sketchbook (D29142; Turner Bequest CCXCIII 56) and elsewhere (Tate D34185; Turner Bequest CCCXLII 1), and revisited the site in the 1840s (see for example Tate D33490; Turner Bequest CCCXXXII 20). The present sketch is one of a number in this sketchbook to record a systematic and careful exploration of the Rhône at Geneva from the lake to its junction with the River Arve. Turner’s travelling companion, H.A.J.Munro of Novar recalled that he sat down to sketch in this area, Turner having previously said that he could find nothing there worth sketching. Not having his own material to hand Turner took Munro’s sketch and made his own on the back.1

David Hill
June 2010

1
The best interpretation of this is probably that Turner meant that he could find nothing worth recording in colour. There is a colour study of Geneva from the West (private collection; Christie’s sale, London, 24 November 1998 lot 95, where reproduced in colour) and it would be interesting to know if this sheet has a sketch by Munro on the other side.

How to cite

David Hill, ‘Four Sketches on the River Rhône at Geneva 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-four-sketches-on-the-river-rhone-at-geneva-r1144686, accessed 23 April 2024.