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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Isère Valley: the Chartreuse and Vercors Seen from the Approach to Grenoble 1802

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
The Isère Valley: the Chartreuse and Vercors Seen from the Approach to Grenoble 1802
D40205
Turner Bequest LXXIV K
Pencil, black chalk and white gouache on greyish-buff laid paper, 221 x 283 mm
Stamped in black ‘LXXIV K’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with the Turner Bequest stamp bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This view is taken from above the Isère Valley looking towards Grenoble; the mountains of the Chartreuse extend to the left and the Vercors to the right. Turner drew a similar view, stretching further to the left, in a coloured drawing in the St Gothard and Mont Blanc sketchbook (Tate D04618; Turner Bequest LXXV 26).
Turner’s label inscribed ‘Le Entree des Premier Alps approcant de Grenoble’ probably refers to this subject. Although stamped with the letter ‘K’, the present drawing is probably the one listed by Finberg as ‘Page 25’ of the Grenoble series, which has long been thought to be missing. The paper is badly faded from exposure.
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
September 2011

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘The Isère Valley: the Chartreuse and Vercors Seen from the Approach to 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-the-isere-valley-the-chartreuse-and-vercors-seen-from-the-r1146464, accessed 28 March 2024.