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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Switzerland 1802 > Grenoble Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Isère Valley 1802

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Isère Valley’ 1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
The Isère Valley 1802
D04512
Turner Bequest LXXIV 19
Pencil, black chalk and white gouache on greyish-buff laid paper, 221 x 283 mm
Stamped in black ‘LXXIV E’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
John Ruskin’s title for this drawing, taken from Turner’s label inscribed ‘Valley de Iser’ [sic], is retained here. The drawing might be taken from the Lyons road, perhaps near La Frette or Voreppe. Other drawings of the Isère valley from this sketchbook include D04513 and D14514; Turner Bequest LXXIV 19, 21.
In his catalogue notes for Marlborough House, Ruskin wrote of this drawing: ‘Coming down from the Alps the road through the valley appears to us disagreeably long and straight. We resolve to have a steady look at it; on which it occurs to us that, nevertheless, it will draw.’1
1
Cook and Wedderburn 1904, p.265; Ruskin on Pictures; Cook 1902, p.226.
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
September 2011

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘The Isère Valley 1802 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-isere-valley-r1146380, accessed 17 July 2024.