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 > Separate Sheets Associated with the 1836 ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Mountains from above Gex 1836

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Mountains from above Gex’ 1836
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
?Mountains from above Gex 1836
D34286
Turner Bequest CCCXLII 82v
Chalk and pencil on paper, 242 x 311 mm
Inscribed in pencil ‘AB24PO’ bottom right.
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This study relates to Turner’s 1836 tour of the Alps, which he made in the company of the wealthy Scottish landowner H.A.J. Munro of Novar; for more information, see the Introduction to this section.
The Turner scholar David Hill suggested that the sketch shows the view towards the Mont Blanc massif from above Gex, a French town 16 kilometres from Geneva; from there, Turner and his travelling companion, Munro enjoyed their first glimpse of these great Alpine peaks in the distance, with Lake Geneva (or Lac Leman) and Geneva itself spread out below them.1 It is difficult to identify this and some related sketches (for more information, see the entry for Tate D40346) with certainty given that they are relatively slight, but Hill’s suggestion is very credible.
This study is made on the verso of D34285 (Turner Bequest CCCXLII 82), a sketch of the Arve valley also dating from the 1836 Alpine tour.

Elizabeth Jacklin
August 2019

1
Hill 2000, p.267.

How to cite

Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘?Mountains from above Gex 1836 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2019, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-mountains-from-above-gex-r1204595, accessed 17 May 2024.