Joseph Mallord William Turner

Mont Blanc from near Servoz, with the Gorge of Les Montées Pelissier and the Tour St Michel

1802

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment
Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
St Gothard and Mont Blanc Sketchbook
Medium
Chalk and graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 315 × 473 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D04606
Turner Bequest LXXV 14

Catalogue entry

Turner’s route to Chamonix in 1802 took him from Servoz down to the floor of the Arve Valley and opened this view towards the narrow gorge of Les Montées Pelissier, guarded by the Tour St Michel set on a rock. Here, the distant summit of Mont Blanc is framed by the Aiguille du Goûter and Dôme du Goûter. Amending John Ruskin’s title for this drawing, which was retained by Finberg, David Hill comments that ‘Turner devoted considerable care to recording the prospect and spent one or two hours’ in the task.1 Also in this sketchbook, Turner drew the view looking back down the gorge towards the tower (D04640; Turner Bequest LXXV 48). Smaller, quicker outlines drawn in 1802 are in the France, Savoy, Piedmont sketchbook (Tate D04393, D04458, D04461; Turner Bequest LXXIII 1, 61, 63).
1
Hill 1992, p.56.
Verso:
Blank
Inscribed by an unknown hand in blue ink ‘...14’

David Blayney Brown
October 2011

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