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

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J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Tour to the Alps 1836 > Separate Sheets Associated with the 1836 ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Castle of Sarre, Looking down the Val d'Aosta 1836

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Castle of Sarre, Looking down the Val d'Aosta’ 1836
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Castle of Sarre, Looking down the Val d’Aosta 1836
D34507
Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 144
Pencil on paper, 245 x 306 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCCXLIV 144’ 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.
Turner made this sketch during his traverse of Italy’s Aosta Valley. As the Turner scholar David Hill has determined, the view looks along the valley towards Aosta.1 The eighteenth-century Castle of Sarre, which was built in 1710 on the ruins of a thirteenth-century fortress, dominates the landscape around it. The castle is also shown in the background of a pencil drawing in the Fort Bard Sketchbook (Tate D29368; Turner Bequest CCXCIV 85).
1
Hill 2000, pp.[205], 285.
Technical notes:
David Hill noted that this paper is different to the other loose sheets Turner used during the 1836 tour, although a similar size; he speculated it could be a flyleaf from the block he was using.1
1
Ibid, p.285.
Verso:
See the separate entry for Tate D34508 (Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 144v).

Elizabeth Jacklin
August 2019

How to cite

Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘Castle of Sarre, Looking down the Val d’Aosta 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-castle-of-sarre-looking-down-the-val-daosta-r1204601, accessed 22 November 2024.