The present identification, while tentative, is based on the recognition that the same subject appears in a more worked up version from this sketchbook (
D04552; Turner Bequest LXXIV 59). The author previously thought the latter drawing depicted Morgex, in the Valdigne, on the basis of its puzzling or incomplete inscription,
1 but this location was afterwards rejected by David Hill.
2 On further reflection it seems more likely that Turner’s inscription refers to Martigny, in which case the subject would be the Castle of La Bâtiaz from the River Drance. There is a further sketch, very similar to the present one and called Martigny by Finberg, from the same sketchbook (
D04557). Turner used the more finished, inscribed drawing as the basis for a watercolour made for Sir William Pilkington and later owned by John Ruskin (Wolverhampton Art Gallery).
3 The exact subject of the watercolour was never recorded and, if indeed connected, it must be admitted that it has further idealised and classicised the composition of the sketches, in the process reducing if not eliminating any resemblance to Martigny or its castle. Ruskin, having found
D04552 in the sketchbook, renamed his watercolour ‘Scene in Savoy’.