Joseph Mallord William Turner

For Martigny subjects from this sketchbook see notes to D04494; Turner Beq uest LXXIV 2. The title ‘Martigny’ was given to this drawing by John Ruskin. Turner’s own label for it was probably the one inscribed ‘Le Chateaux de Martingny’ [sic] as it is the closest view of the Castle of La Bâtiaz on its rock overlooking the town. Evidently, the wet weather Turner observed on his descent to Martigny (see D04509; Turner Bequest LXXIV 16) has now cleared and townsfolk are resting against a wall in bright sunshine. Along with a quicker sketch of a street beneath the castle, with a procession (D04580; Turner Bequest LXXIV 87), this drawing served for Turner’s vignette Martigny made to illustrate Samuel Rogers’s Italy (1830); for the corresponding watercolour see Tate D27671; Turner Bequest CCLXXX 154. The vignette extends the view on the left to include the inn, La Cygne, where Turner stayed in Martigny, and the cabriolet he used on tour in 1802, taken from the sketch from this sketchbook (D40208).

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