Joseph Mallord William Turner

Lightning over a Wooded Valley; ?St Laurent-du-Pont, Chartreuse

1802

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Grenoble Sketchbook
Medium
Chalk, graphite and watercolour on paper
Dimensions
Support: 212 × 283 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D40023
Turner Bequest LXXIV R

Catalogue entry

Although stamped separately with the letter ‘G’, the present drawing is probably the one listed by Finberg as ‘Page 40’ of the Grenoble series, which has long been thought to be missing.
The title ‘St. Lauriot, Savoy’ given by John Ruskin when ‘Page 40’ was exhibited at the National Gallery was presumably based on one of two labels inscribed by Turner ‘St La...’., most probably indicating St Laurent-du-Pont, formerly St Laurent-du-Desert. Turner passed through the village on his way up from Voreppe though what he described as the ‘Petit’ Chartreuse’ to the Gorges du Guiers Mort.
Meeting Joseph Farington on 1 October 1802, in Paris after his Alpine tour, Turner reported seeing ‘very fine Thunder Storms among the mountains’.1
1
Kenneth Garlick and Angus Macintyre eds., The Diary of Joseph Farington, vol.V, New Haven and London 1979, p.1890.
Verso:
Blank, inscribed perhaps by a later hand in pencil ‘46’

David Blayney Brown
September 2011

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