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 > St Gothard and Mont Blanc Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The River Arve and St Martin, Mont Blanc in the Distance 1802

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The River Arve and St Martin, Mont Blanc in the Distance’ 1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 10 Recto:
The River Arve and St Martin, Mont Blanc in the Distance 1802
D04602
Turner Bequest LXXV 10
Pencil, black and white chalk on white wove paper prepared with grey wash, 315 x 473 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘9’ bottom left
Stamped in black ‘LXXV 10’ bottom left, descending vertically, and again bottom right
Blind-stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Turner’s label for this drawing is inscribed ‘St Martin Pied de Mt Blanc’. Both are numbered ‘9’ by John Ruskin. The importance of St Martin and Sallanches, joined by the bridge across the River Arve, for travellers in Turner’s time, and his making ‘a number’ of drawings of the area in this sketchbook have been described by David Hill. St Martin, with its Hotel du Mont Blanc near the bridge, was a favourite overnight stop between Bonneville and Chamonix. A fine view of Mont Blanc could be had from the bridge or just below it, looking upstream along the Arve. This seems to be the subject of this drawing. Turner made a more detailed study of the view in 1836 (Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California).
Verso:
Blank
Inscribed by an unknown hand in pencil ‘241’

David Blayney Brown
October 2011

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘The River Arve and St Martin, Mont Blanc in the Distance 1802 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 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-river-arve-and-st-martin-mont-blanc-in-the-distance-r1146481, accessed 21 November 2024.