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 Villeneuve and Château d'Argent, Val d'Aosta, from near St Pierre 1802

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Villeneuve and Château d'Argent, Val d'Aosta, from near St Pierre’ 1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Villeneuve and Château d’Argent, Val d’Aosta, from near St Pierre 1802
D04561
Turner Bequest LXXIV 68
Pencil on greyish-buff laid paper, 216 x 282 mm
Stamped in black ‘LXXIV 68’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg listed this as one of 22 leaves from this sketchbook found ‘in a parcel labelled by Mr. Ruskin – “M. 16. Leaves of S. 229. Laid down.” They have been mounted on cartridge by Mr. Ruskin.’ Evidently, Ruskin isolated these drawings because they were pencil outlines, without the additions of chalk or gouache found elsewhere in the sketchbook.
Turner’s view is taken from near St Pierre below Villeneuve, overlooking the River Doire; the bridge is in the middle distance. The Château d’Argent stands on the mount on the left and below is the Church of St Roch. In the distance, mountains flank the Rhèmes and Grisanche valleys. The subject was recognised by David Hill, whose subsequent exhibition and publication showed drawings from Turner’s return to the area in 1836 and the watercolour (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin)1 of a very similar view to the one Turner drew in 1802.
1
Hill 2000, pp.196–7 reproduced.
Verso:
Laid down

David Blayney Brown
September 2011

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Villeneuve and Château d’Argent, Val d’Aosta, from near St Pierre 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-villeneuve-and-chateau-dargent-val-daosta-from-near-st-r1146426, accessed 27 April 2024.