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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Switzerland 1802 > Grenoble Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Road near Grenoble 1802

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Road near Grenoble’ 1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
A Road near Grenoble 1802
D04505
Turner Bequest LXXIV 13
Pencil, black and white chalks and white gouache on greyish-buff paper, 281 x 213 mm
Stamped in black ‘LXXIV 13’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
In the 1998 Tate/Martigny catalogue the present author suggested that Turner’s label inscribed ‘Le Entrée des Premier Alps approcant de Grenoble’ [sic] might refer to this subject. However it is more likely to have belonged to D40205; Turner Bequest LXXIV K, also from this sketchbook, depicting the Isère Valley leading towards the city.
In his catalogue notes for Marlborough House, John Ruskin cited this drawing as an example of Turner’s recent transition from ‘imperfect work to that of the formed master’, adding that ‘we shall see him advance in truth and tenderness, but we cannot much in power’.1 The unidentified road is treated with classical symmetry, framed by trees.
1
Cook and Wedderburn 1904, p.261; Ruskin on Pictures; Cook 1902, p.223.
Verso:
Blank, inscribed perhaps by a later hand in pencil ‘8’

David Blayney Brown
September 2011

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘A Road near Grenoble 1802 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-road-near-grenoble-r1146375, accessed 24 April 2024.