Joseph Mallord William Turner

This page contains three sketches, drawn with the sketchbook in the upright position, running down the page from the top:

i. Mont Blanc and the Glacier des Bossons from Chamonix. This sketch is annotated with several inscriptions, now indecipherable but presumably relating to weather conditions, and in this and the sketch immediately below, Turner appears to have been recording the same scene successively to note the changes in effect. He sketched the same material on another page of the sketchbook (D29081; Turner Bequest CCXCIII 25a) and in watercolour studies (Tate D35936, D35996; Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 93, 152).
ii. Mont Blanc and the Glacier des Bossons from Chamonix, inscribed ‘When the Morn very bad – Blanc the Crown’ and below ‘Boss[ons]’.
iii. Mont Blanc and the Aiguille Noire overlooking the Val Veni, from above the Pont de la Visaille, descending towards Courmayeur from the Col de la Seigne. Turner’s inscription here mistakenly records the ‘Col de Four’ (the Col des Fours, on the direct route from the Col du Bonhomme to the Col de la Seigne), presumably recalling his route over that pass. The view is similar to that recorded in a watercolour of the Col de la Seigne (private collection)1 but is actually taken from considerably further down the valley.