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 > St Gothard and Mont Blanc Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Mont Blanc from near Servoz, with the Gorge of Les Montées Pelissier and the Tour St Michel 1802

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Mont Blanc from near Servoz, with the Gorge of Les Montées Pelissier and the Tour St Michel’ 1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 14 Recto:
Mont Blanc from near Servoz, with the Gorge of Les Montées Pelissier and the Tour St Michel 1802
D04606
Turner Bequest LXXV 14
Pencil, black chalk and white gouache on white wove paper prepared with grey wash, 315 x 473 mm
Stamped in black ‘LXXV 14’ bottom left, descending vertically, and again bottom right
Blind-stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Turner’s route to Chamonix in 1802 took him from Servoz down to the floor of the Arve Valley and opened this view towards the narrow gorge of Les Montées Pelissier, guarded by the Tour St Michel set on a rock. Here, the distant summit of Mont Blanc is framed by the Aiguille du Goûter and Dôme du Goûter. Amending John Ruskin’s title for this drawing, which was retained by Finberg, David Hill comments that ‘Turner devoted considerable care to recording the prospect and spent one or two hours’ in the task.1 Also in this sketchbook, Turner drew the view looking back down the gorge towards the tower (D04640; Turner Bequest LXXV 48). Smaller, quicker outlines drawn in 1802 are in the France, Savoy, Piedmont sketchbook (Tate D04393, D04458, D04461; Turner Bequest LXXIII 1, 61, 63).
1
Hill 1992, p.56.
Verso:
Blank
Inscribed by an unknown hand in blue ink ‘...14’

David Blayney Brown
October 2011

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Mont Blanc from near Servoz, with the Gorge of Les Montées Pelissier and the Tour St Michel 1802 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 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-mont-blanc-from-near-servoz-with-the-gorge-of-les-montees-r1146484, accessed 20 April 2024.