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 > St Gothard and Mont Blanc Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Les Contamines 1802

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Les Contamines’ 1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 25 Recto:
Les Contamines 1802
D04617
Turner Bequest LXXV 25
Pencil and white chalk or gouache with rubbing out on white wove paper prepared with grey wash, 315 x 473 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Contamines’ towards bottom left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘12’ towards bottom left and in red ink ‘25’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LXXV 25’ bottom left, descending vertically
Blind-stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Turner’s label for this drawing is inscribed ‘Contamines Mt Blanc a Bonne Homme Mountain’. It is numbered ‘12’, as is the drawing. Turner passed through the village of Les Contamines, in the Val Montjoie, after climbing the Col de Voza and before negotiating the Col du Bonhomme, on his way from Chamonix to Courmayeur. A coloured view from this sketchbook of the village at sunrise (D04616; Turner Bequest LXXV 24) indicates an overnight stay, as David Hill has described.1
1
David Hill, Turner in the Alps: The Journey through France & Switzerland in 1802, London 1992, p.67.
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
October 2011

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Les Contamines 1802 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 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-les-contamines-r1146488, accessed 19 April 2024.