Joseph Mallord William Turner Blair's Hut on the Montenvers 1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
Blair's Hut on the Montenvers
1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Blair’s Hut on the Montenvers 1802
D04614
Turner Bequest LXXV 22
Turner Bequest LXXV 22
Pencil, black chalk, watercolour and gouache on white wove paper prepared with grey wash, 314 x 468 mm
Stamped in black ‘LXXV 22’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LXXV 22’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1878
National Gallery, London, various dates, 1878–1904 (322, as ‘The Mer de Glace of Chamouni, Looking Down Stream’).
1934
Display of Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, March 1934–May 1937 (no catalogue; frame 1:14).
1959
The Romantic Movement: Fifth Exhibition to Celebrate the Tenth Anniversary of the Council of Europe, Tate Gallery and Arts Council Gallery, London, July–September 1959 (439).
1963
Turner Watercolors from The British Museum: A Loan Exhibition Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, September–October 1963, Museum of Fine Arts of Houston, Texas, November 1963, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, December 1963–January 1964, Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, January–March 1964, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, March–April 1964, Brooklyn Museum, New York, May 1964, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, June–July 1964 (7).
1970
Turner: Watercolours Lent by the British Museum, Musée Provisoire d’Art Moderne, Brussels, November 1970–January 1971 (3).
1972
La Peinture romantique anglaise et les Préraphaélites, Petit Palais, Paris, January–April 1972 (282).
1976
J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Akvareller og Tegninger fra British Museum, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, February–May 1976 (9).
1976
William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit, Hamburger Kunsthalle, May–July 1976 (13).
1979
Zwei Jahrhunderte Englische Malerei: Britische Kunst und Europa 1680 bis 1880, Haus der Kunst, Munich, November 1979–January 1980 (217).
1981
Turner en France: aquarelles, peintures, dessins, gravures, carnets de croquis / Turner in France: Watercolours, Paintings, Drawings, Engravings, Sketchbooks, Centre Culturel du Marais, Paris, October 1981–January 1982 (11).
1987
Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, April–October 1987 (no catalogue).
1993
Romanticismo: Il nuovo sentimento della natura, Palazzo delle Albere, Trento, May–August 1993 (14).
1998
Turner in the Alps 1802, Tate Gallery, London, November 1998–February 1999, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny, March–June 1999 (33).
2008
¿¿¿¿¿¿ [Turner] (1775–1851), Pushkin Museum of Art, Moscow, November 2008–February 2009 (13).
2009
Turner from the Tate Collection, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, April–July 2009 (13).
References
1879
Philip Gilbert Hamerton, The Life of J. M. W. Turner, R.A., London 1879, p.185, as ‘Mer de Glace, Chamouni’.
1902
E.T. Cook (ed.), Ruskin on Pictures: A Collection of Criticisms by John Ruskin not heretofore Re-printed and now Re-edited and Re-arranged, vol.I, London 1902, p.170, as ‘The Mer de Glace, Chamouni, Looking Down Stream’.
1904
E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn (eds.), Library Edition: The Works of John Ruskin: Volume XIII: Turner: The Harbours of England; Catalogues and Notes, London 1904, pp.371, 624.
1905
W[illiam] L[ionel] Wyllie, J.M.W. Turner, London 1905, reproduced opposite p.128.
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.202, LXXV 22, as ‘“Mer de Glace, avec le Cabin de Blair, &c.” Chamounix’.
1910
Alexander J. Finberg, Turner’s Sketches and Drawings, London 1910, p.39, reproduced pl.XVI opposite.
1912
Alex[ander] J. Finberg, Turner’s Water-Colours at Farnley Hall, London 1912, p.1.
1959
Kenneth Clark, Michel Florisoone, Geoffrey Grigson and others, The Romantic Movement: Fifth Exhibition to Celebrate the Tenth Anniversary of the Council of Europe, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery and Arts Council Gallery, London 1959, p.263.
1963
Edward Croft-Murray, Turner Watercolors from The British Museum: A Loan Exhibition Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC 1963, p.9.
1964
Michael Kitson, J.M.W. Turner, London 1964, pp.12, 23, reproduced in colour, as ‘Mer de Glace, Chamonix’.
1965
John Gage, ‘Turner and the Picturesque – 1’, The Burlington Magazine, vol.107, February 1965, p.75 note 2.
1966
Jack Lindsay, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work: A Critical Biography, London 1966, pp.117, 236 note 25.
1969
Graham Reynolds, Turner, London 1969, p.50 reproduced.
1970
Luke Herrmann, Turner: Watercolours Lent by the British Museum, exhibition catalogue, Musée Provisoire d’Art Moderne, Brussels 1970, p.6.
1970
N.[Nicholas]A. Serota, ‘J.M.W. Turner’s Alpine Tours’, unpublished M.A. Report, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London 1970, p.14.
1972
Kenneth Clark, Michael Kitson, John Gage and others, La Peinture romantique anglaise et les Préraphaélites, exhibition catalogue, Petit Palais, Paris 1972, pp.192–3 reproduced.
1974
Michael Kitson, Turner Watercolours from the Collection of Stephen Courtauld, London 1974, p.5.
1974
Gerald Wilkinson, The Sketches of Turner, R.A. 1802–20: Genius of the Romantic, London 1974, p.48 reproduced in colour (two details).
1975
Luke Herrmann, Turner: Paintings, Watercolours, Prints & Drawings, London 1975, pp.14, 88, 227–8 reproduced pl.37.
1976
David Loshak and Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Akvareller og Tegninger fra British Museum, exhibition catalogue, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen 1976, p. 29 reproduced.
1976
Werner Hofmann, Andrew Wilton, Siegmar Hosten and others, William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit, exhibition catalogue, Hamburger Kunsthalle 1976, p.13 reproduced.
1976
John Russell and Andrew Wilton, Turner in Switzerland, Zurich 1976, p.44 reproduced in colour, as ‘Mer de Glace, Chamonix’, 135.
1977
Jean Selz, Turner, Naefels 1977, p.7 reproduced in colour.
1977
Gerald Wilkinson, Turner Sketches 1789–1820, London 1977, p.95 reproduced in colour.
1979
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p.342.
1981
Lindsay Stainton in Maurice Guillaud and others, Turner en France: aquarelles, peintures, dessins, gravures, carnets de croquis / Turner in France: Watercolours, Paintings, Drawings, Engravings, Sketchbooks, exhibition catalogue, Centre Culturel du Marais, Paris 1981, pp.68, 77 reproduced Fig.135.
David Hill, in Maurice Guillaud and others, Turner en France, p.137.
1981
Laure Meyer, ‘Turner et la France: exposition’, L’Estampille, no.139, November 1981, pp.10–12 reproduced.
1987
Jonathan Wordsworth, Michael C. Jaye, Robert Woof and others, William Wordsworth and the Age of English Romanticism, exhibition catalogue, New York Public Library 1987, p.235.
1990
Eric Shanes, Turner, London 1990, p.18 reproduced.
1992
David Hill, Turner in the Alps: The Journey through France & Switzerland in 1802, London 1992, pp.65, 168.
1993
David Blayney Brown, in Pierre Rosenberg, Gabriella Belli, Franco Rella and others, Romanticismo: Il nuovo sentimento della natura, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo delle Albere, Trento 1993, pp.74, 90–1 reproduced in colour.
1998
Richard P. Townsend, Andrew Wilton, David Blayney Brown and others, J.M.W. Turner: “That Greatest of Landscape Painters”: Watercolors from London Museums, exhibition catalogue, Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa 1998, p.96.
1998
David Blayney Brown, Turner in the Alps 1802, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1998, pp.106–7 reproduced in colour.
1999
David Blayney Brown, Turner et les Alpes 1802, exhibition catalogue, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny 1999, pp.106–7 reproduced in colour.
2002
Lawrence Gowing, ‘Turner’s First Continental Tour in 1802’, Turner Society News, no.91, August 2002, pp.9, 12 note 29.
2008
Joanna Selborne, Andrew Wilton and Cecilia Powell, Paths to Fame: Turner Watercolours from The Courtauld Collection, exhibition catalogue, Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere 2008, pp.78–80 note 6.
2009
Fan Di’an, Ian Warrell, Matthew Imms and others, Turner from the Tate Collection, exhibition catalogue, National Art Museum of China, Beijing 2009, p.44.
Turner’s label for this drawing reads ‘Mer de Glace, le Cabin de Blair, Aiguile du Rouge’ [sic].
Blair’s hut or the ‘Cabin’ or ‘Château de Blair’ was built in 1779 by Charles Blair, an Englishman living in Geneva, as a viewing station on the Montenvers. A simple wooden structure with the motto ‘Utile Dulci’ above the door, it commanded a view of the Mer de Glace. Turner and his travelling companion Newbey Lowson must have been taken there by a guide and the artist climbed down to the glacier itself to make his drawing. Cracked ice occupies the foreground and the hut is glimpsed on pine-clad slopes in the left distance. Behind are the Aiguilles Rouges and the Col des Montets. Even if added afterwards over a quick outline done on the spot, the broad washes of watercolour and highlights of white gouache are powerfully expressive of the bleak grandeur of the scenery and of overcast weather. Turner made a finished watercolour of this subject, Mer de Glace, Blair’s Hut, for Walter Fawkes whose initial ‘F’ is marked on the label. The watercolour (Courtauld Gallery, London)1 may have been shown at Turner’s Gallery in 1806 but, according to Eric Shanes, could date from as early as 1803.2
Blair’s hut or the ‘Cabin’ or ‘Château de Blair’ was built in 1779 by Charles Blair, an Englishman living in Geneva, as a viewing station on the Montenvers. A simple wooden structure with the motto ‘Utile Dulci’ above the door, it commanded a view of the Mer de Glace. Turner and his travelling companion Newbey Lowson must have been taken there by a guide and the artist climbed down to the glacier itself to make his drawing. Cracked ice occupies the foreground and the hut is glimpsed on pine-clad slopes in the left distance. Behind are the Aiguilles Rouges and the Col des Montets. Even if added afterwards over a quick outline done on the spot, the broad washes of watercolour and highlights of white gouache are powerfully expressive of the bleak grandeur of the scenery and of overcast weather. Turner made a finished watercolour of this subject, Mer de Glace, Blair’s Hut, for Walter Fawkes whose initial ‘F’ is marked on the label. The watercolour (Courtauld Gallery, London)1 may have been shown at Turner’s Gallery in 1806 but, according to Eric Shanes, could date from as early as 1803.2
Verso:
Blank
Inscribed by a later hand in pencil ‘2’ within a circle
David Blayney Brown
November 2011
How to cite
David Blayney Brown, ‘Blair’s Hut on the Montenvers 1802 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2014, https://www