Joseph Mallord William Turner

The River Arve and St Martin, Mont Blanc in the Distance

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
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
D04602
Turner Bequest LXXV 10

Catalogue entry

Turner’s label for this drawing is inscribed ‘St Martin Pied de Mt Blanc’. Both are numbered ‘9’ by John Ruskin. The importance of St Martin and Sallanches, joined by the bridge across the River Arve, for travellers in Turner’s time, and his making ‘a number’ of drawings of the area in this sketchbook have been described by David Hill. St Martin, with its Hotel du Mont Blanc near the bridge, was a favourite overnight stop between Bonneville and Chamonix. A fine view of Mont Blanc could be had from the bridge or just below it, looking upstream along the Arve. This seems to be the subject of this drawing. Turner made a more detailed study of the view in 1836 (Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California).
Verso:
Blank
Inscribed by an unknown hand in pencil ‘241’

David Blayney Brown
October 2011

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