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 > Paris, France, Savoy 2 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of the River Arc and the Croix des Têtes in the Maurienne Valley, Savoy 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of the River Arc and the Croix des Têtes in the Maurienne Valley, Savoy’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 84 Recto:
View of the River Arc and the Croix des Têtes in the Maurienne Valley, Savoy 1819
D14132
Turner Bequest CLXXIII 84
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 185 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Pink’ within top centre of sketch
Stamped in black ‘CLXXIII 84’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch represents Alpine landscape within the Maurienne valley in Savoy. Turner journeyed through the valley en route to the Mont Cenis pass and this drawing depicts a view from the road between St-Jean-de-Maurienne and St-Michel-de-Maurienne. The River Arc winds along the floor of the valley whilst the mountainous profile visible near the upper left of the scene can be identified as the Croix des Têtes, the highest limestone cliff-face in France. The composition spills over onto the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 83 verso (D14131).

Nicola Moorby
March 2013

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘View of the River Arc and the Croix des Têtes in the Maurienne Valley, Savoy 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 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-river-arc-and-the-croix-des-tetes-in-the-r1142991, accessed 25 April 2024.