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 > Val d'Aosta Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Three Sketches: Mont Blanc from the Church at Courmayeur; Arvier Castle and Church, Looking up the Val d'Aosta; Massif of Mont Blanc from Pré St Didier, below Courmayeur in the Val d'Aosta 1836

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Three Sketches: Mont Blanc from the Church at Courmayeur; Arvier Castle and Church, Looking up the Val d'Aosta; Massif of Mont Blanc from Pré St Didier, below Courmayeur in the Val d'Aosta’ 1836
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 23 Recto:
Three Sketches: Mont Blanc from the Church at Courmayeur; Arvier Castle and Church, Looking up the Val d’Aosta; Massif of Mont Blanc from Pré St Didier, below Courmayeur in the Val d’Aosta 1836
D29076
Turner Bequest CCXCIII 23
Pencil on white wove paper, 190 x 113 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘S’, ‘Lev’, ‘Blanc from S Didier’, ‘1’, ‘2’
Inscribed, possibly by John Ruskin, in blue ink ‘23’ top left, running vertically, and ‘320’ top right, running vertically
Stamped in brown ‘CCXCIII 23’ top right, running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains three sketches drawn with the page in the upright position, working down the page from the outer edge:
i. Mont Blanc from the church and terrace at Courmayeur. Turner painted a watercolour study of a similar view under stormy conditions (Tate D35891; Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 51).
ii. Arvier castle and church, looking up the Val d’Aosta towards ‘Lev[erogne]’, with ‘S[now]’-capped peaks above. Turner sketched a similar aspect of the same subject in two thumbnail sketches on a preceding page of the sketchbook (D29072; Turner Bequest CCXCIII 21).
iii. (inverted in relation to the two previous sketches) Mont ‘Blanc from S Didier, in two parts; Mont Blanc and Le Chetif in the lower register (numbered ‘2’) panning right in the upper register to include the Dent du Geant (numbered ‘1’), inscribed ‘Blanc from S Didier’.

David Hill
June 2010

How to cite

David Hill, ‘Three Sketches: Mont Blanc from the Church at Courmayeur; Arvier Castle and Church, Looking up the Val d’Aosta; Massif of Mont Blanc from Pré St Didier, below Courmayeur in the Val d’Aosta 1836 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-three-sketches-mont-blanc-from-the-church-at-courmayeur-r1144625, accessed 24 April 2024.