Joseph Mallord William Turner

Chamonix and Mont Blanc, from the Slopes of the Montenvers

1802

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On loan

Musée du Luxembourg (Paris, France): Gainsborough to Turner: The Golden Age of English Painting

Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
St Gothard and Mont Blanc Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite, watercolour and gouache on paper
Dimensions
Support: 320 x 475 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D04607
Turner Bequest LXXV 15

Display caption

It is hard to imagine how exciting it
must have been for Turner, who had
never previously travelled abroad,
finally to cross to the Continent. He was twenty-seven, and already a successful artist and Royal Academician. He had been on many sketching tours within Great Britain but because of the Napoleonic Wars had been unable to travel further afield. In 1802 however,
the Treaty of Amiens temporarily halted hostilities, enabling British tourists to
flock across the Channel. Turner eagerly grasped the opportunity to witness the amazing spectacle of the Swiss Alps.

Gallery label, September 2002

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