J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Tour to the Alps 1836 > Separate Sheets Associated with the 1836 ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lake Geneva, Looking towards Mont Blanc 1836

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lake Geneva, Looking towards Mont Blanc’ 1836
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Lake Geneva, Looking towards Mont Blanc 1836
D36109
Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 262
Gouache and watercolour on paper, 235 x 315 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCCLXIV–262’ bottom right
Inscribed in red ink ‘262’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This study relates to Turner’s 1836 tour of the Alps, which he made in the company of the wealthy Scottish landowner H.A.J. Munro of Novar; for more information, see the Introduction to this section.
The sketch relates to the start of the Alpine tour, at Geneva. As the Turner scholar David Hill has pointed out, Turner made a number pencil studies looking over Lake Geneva (Tate D41097, D34195, D34290 and D34291; Turner Bequest CCCXLII 11, 85 and 86), as well as two further colour studies, which share virtually the same viewpoint (Tate D36058 and D36236; Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 212 and 374).1 The present view appears to be from slightly higher ground.
1
Hill 2000, p.267.
Verso:
Blank, save for inscriptions: stamped in black with the Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCCXLIV–262’ bottom right.

Elizabeth Jacklin
August 2019

How to cite

Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘Lake Geneva, Looking towards Mont Blanc 1836 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2019, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-lake-geneva-looking-towards-mont-blanc-r1204630, accessed 05 April 2026.