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

For Turner’s visit to the Chartreuse in 1802 see Introduction to the sketchbook.

Turner’s label for this drawing is inscribed ‘Le Cascade de Chartruse Moulins de Eau’ [sic]. Rather than the traditional location of this mill and bridge at Voreppe, the present writer prefers David Hill’s suggestion of Fourvoirie, the site of an old mill that was destroyed by an avalanche in 1935. On his label, Turner noted the initials ‘F’ and ‘SWP’, indicating possible commissions of a finished version of the subject for Walter Fawkes or his relation by marriage, Sir William Pilkington. This subject may be the ‘Mill near the Convent’ (that is, of the Grande Chartreuse) listed twice by Turner, near Pilkington’s name, in the front of the album he compiled of his best 1802 drawings (see Introduction and Technical notes to this sketchbook). No finished watercolour of the subject is known, however.

Verso:

Blank, inscribed perhaps by a later hand in pencil ‘10’ with a circle