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

This page contains four distinct sketches, all of which show views of landscape within the Maurienne Valley, Savoy. The valley formed part of Turner’s route between Chambéry and the Mont Cenis pass. The draughtsmanship is very rough and hasty, suggesting that the artist was working swiftly in challenging conditions, probably from a moving vehicle, and the locations are difficult to identify with certainty. However, according to a written inscription the uppermost drawing depicts a vista below the village of La Chambre, approximately fourteen miles south of Aiguebelle, see folio 80 (D14124). The second sketch from the top meanwhile clearly includes a single-arched bridge which presumably represents a crossing point over the River Arc.