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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Monro School c.1794-8 > Collaborations with Thomas Girtin for Dr ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Thomas Girtin Distant View of the Alps from ?Modena, with a Church among Trees c.1796

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Thomas Girtin, ‘Distant View of the Alps from ?Modena, with a Church among Trees’ c.1796
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Thomas Girtin 1775–1802
Distant View of the Alps from ?Modena, with a Church among Trees c.1796
D36564
Turner Bequest CCCLXXVI 5
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 160 x 238 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCCLXXVI – 5’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Provenance:
Probably commissioned by Dr Thomas Monro
Monro’s posthumous sale, Christie’s, London, 26–28 June and 1–2 July 1833 (day and lot number not known)
Bought by or on behalf of Turner
The pencil work is by Girtin. This was presumably copied from a sketch by John Robert Cozens (1752–1797), whose title was transcribed on the verso by Girtin.
Technical notes:
The top right corner has been torn away.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed by Girtin in pencil ‘Mountains of the Grisons from the Walls of [...]’; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.
Finberg transcribed the final word of the inscription as ‘Milan (?)’. It is now even less visible.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Distant View of the Alps from ?Modena, with a Church among Trees c.1796 by Joseph Mallord William Turner, Thomas Girtin’, catalogue entry, April 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-thomas-girtin-distant-view-of-the-alps-from-modena-with-a-r1141294, accessed 21 December 2024.