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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Switzerland 1802 > Grenoble Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Château de St Pierre, Val d'Aosta, Looking towards Villeneuve, Château d'Argent in the Distance 1802

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Château de St Pierre, Val d'Aosta, Looking towards Villeneuve, Château d'Argent in the Distance’ 1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Château de St Pierre, Val d’Aosta, Looking towards Villeneuve, Château d’Argent in the Distance 1802
D04555
Turner Bequest LXXIV 62
Pencil on greyish-buff laid paper, 216 x 283 mm
Stamped in black ‘LXXIV 62’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg listed this as one of 22 leaves from this sketchbook found ‘in a parcel labelled by Mr. Ruskin – “M. 16. Leaves of S. 229. Laid down.” They have been mounted on cartridge by Mr. Ruskin.’ Evidently, Ruskin isolated these drawings because they were pencil outlines, without the additions of chalk or gouache found elsewhere in the sketchbook.
The Château de St Pierre is below Villeneuve in the Val d’Aosta. Originating from the eleventh century, as a fortress of the Sancto Petro family, it was heavily restored in the late nineteenth century and is today a museum of the natural history of the valley. Here, Turner looks westwards along the valley, towards the castle on its rocky mount on the right and, in the distance, the tower of Château d’Argent. The subject was recognised by David Hill, whose subsequent exhibition and publication showed drawings from Turner’s return to the area in 1836 and illustrated a modern photograph looking in the same direction from closer to the castle.1
1
Hill 2000, p.203 reproduced.
Verso:
Laid down

David Blayney Brown
September 2011

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Château de St Pierre, Val d’Aosta, Looking towards Villeneuve, Château d’Argent in the Distance 1802 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-chateau-de-st-pierre-val-daosta-looking-towards-villeneuve-r1146420, accessed 26 April 2024.