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 The Castle of Chillon and Villeneuve, Lake Geneva 1802

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Castle of Chillon and Villeneuve, Lake Geneva’ 1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
The Castle of Chillon and Villeneuve, Lake Geneva 1802
D04570
Turner Bequest LXXIV 77
Pencil on greyish-buff laid paper, 212 x 282 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Chateau Chillion’ bottom left and ‘Ville Neuve’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LXXIV 77’ 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 first sight of the Castle of Chillon in 1802 was across Lake Geneva from Villeneuve, after travelling north along the lower Rhône Valley from Martigny (see his drawing of St Maurice from the same sketchbook, D04571; Turner Bequest LXXIV 78). In this drawing the castle is on the left and Villeneuve on the right. For another drawing of the castle from the sketchbook see D04574; Turner Bequest LXXIV 81. Turner made a more panoramic treatment of this material during his tour with H.A.J. Munro of Novar in 1836 (see the Val d’Aosta sketchbook, Tate D29111; Turner Bequest CCXCIII 40a).
Verso:
Laid down

David Blayney Brown
September 2011

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘The Castle of Chillon and Villeneuve, Lake Geneva 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-the-castle-of-chillon-and-villeneuve-lake-geneva-r1146435, accessed 23 April 2024.