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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > First Italian Tour 1819-20 > Return from Italy Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of the Tarentaise Valley, Savoy 1820

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of the Tarentaise Valley, Savoy’ 1820
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 25 Recto:
View of the Tarentaise Valley, Savoy 1820
D16688
Turner Bequest CXCII 24
Pencil on white wove paper, 98 x 128 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Tarantaise’ centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘24’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CXCII 24’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner has inscribed this view of mountainous scenery as ‘Tarantaise’ suggesting that the subject is the Tarentaise Valley in Savoy. The itinerary of the artist’s return journey between the Mont Cenis Pass and Chambéry did not actually take him through the valley and so this prospect was perhaps observed from a point on the road to the north-west of Aiguebelle, looking east in the direction of Albertville. There appears to be a bridge or other man-made structure visible in the centre of the composition.

Nicola Moorby
April 2013

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘View of the Tarentaise Valley, Savoy 1820 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2013, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-view-of-the-tarentaise-valley-savoy-r1142588, accessed 19 April 2024.