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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Tour to the Alps 1836 > Separate Sheets Associated with the 1836 ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Mountains from above Gex 1836

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Mountains from above Gex’ 1836
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
?Mountains from above Gex 1836
D34281
Turner Bequest CCCXLII 78
Chalk and pencil on paper, 238 x 309 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCCXLII 78’ bottom right
Inscribed in pencil ‘78’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This study relates to Turner’s 1836 tour of the Alps, which he made in the company of the wealthy Scottish landowner H.A.J. Munro of Novar; for more information, see the Introduction to this section.
The Turner scholar David Hill suggested this sketch shows the view towards the Mont Blanc massif from above Gex, a French town 16 kilometres from Geneva; from there, Turner and Munro would have enjoyed their first view of these great – but distant – Alpine peaks, with Lake Geneva (or Lac Leman) and Geneva itself also spread out below them.1 It is difficult to identify this sketch with certainty given that it is relatively slight, but Hill’s suggestion is very credible. For related sketches, see the entry for D40346.
1
Hill 2000, p.267.
Verso:
Blank, save for inscriptions: inscribed in pencil ‘AB24P O’ bottom right.

Elizabeth Jacklin
August 2019

How to cite

Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘?Mountains from above Gex 1836 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2019, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-mountains-from-above-gex-r1204590, accessed 18 May 2024.