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

While the Turner Bequest’s first cataloguer, A.J. Finberg, categorised this sheet as a view of the Morteratsch Glacier in Switzerland,1 in 2000 David Hill published it as showing the Glacier du Bois above Chamonix. There can be little doubt that Hill’s identification is correct; the mountains shown can be linked to those in the Mont Blanc massif, and to one of Turner’s sketchbook studies of the Mont Blanc range as seen from Chamonix (Tate D29083; Turner Bequest CCXCIII 26 a). Its connection to the 1836 tour of the Alps also appears firm, both in terms of the handling of the sketch and its connections to Turner’s itinerary and the afore-mentioned sketchbook study made during this trip.

The almost square format and the loose handling of watercolour is similar to a small group of other colour studies of Mont Blanc catalogued in this section; for more information, see the entry for D35996 (Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 152).

It is likely that Turner and his travelling companion, the wealthy Scottish landowner H.A.J. Munro of Novar, spent at least two or three days in Chamonix during their 1836 tour of the Alps; for more information about the tour, see the Introduction to this section. Hill identified the viewpoint of this sheet as from near the present site of the Brevant cable car station, below the Grand Balcon Sud.2

Verso:

The verso of this sheet could not be inspected at the time of cataloguing.