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 Mer de Glace, Chamonix 1836

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Mer de Glace, Chamonix’ 1836
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Mer de Glace, Chamonix 1836
D34287
Turner Bequest CCCXLII 83
Chalk and pencil on paper, 240 x 312 mm
Inscribed in pencil ?by John Ruskin ‘Mer de Glace, Chamounix. JR.’ bottom left
Stamped in black ‘CCCXLII–83’ bottom right
Inscribed in pencil ‘83’ 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.
This view of the Mer de Glace (or Glacier du Bois) was made from the junction of the rivers Arve and Arveyron near the French town of Chamonix. Turner and Munro seem to have spent at least a couple of days in the town, which is at the foot of Mont Blanc, during their 1836 tour. See also the entry for D34282 (Turner Bequest CCCXLII 79), a related view also drawn on a loose sheet of buff paper.
For further studies made in and around Chamonix during the 1836 tour, see the entry for D34289 (Turner Bequest CCCXLII 84).
Verso:
See separate entry for Tate D34288 (Turner Bequest CCCXLII 83v).

Elizabeth Jacklin
August 2019

How to cite

Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘Mer de Glace, Chamonix 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-mer-de-glace-chamonix-r1204596, accessed 18 May 2024.