Joseph Mallord William Turner The Source of the Arveyron below the Glacier du Bois and Mer de Glace 1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
The Source of the Arveyron below the Glacier du Bois and Mer de Glace
1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
The Source of the Arveyron below the Glacier du Bois and Mer de Glace 1802
D04613
Turner Bequest LXXV 21
Turner Bequest LXXV 21
Pencil, watercolour and white gouache with scratching and stopping out on white wove paper prepared with grey wash, 313 x 468 mm
Stamped in black ‘LXXV 21’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LXXV 21’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1857
Marlborough House, London, 1857 (39, as ‘First sketch of the Liber Studiorum subject, “Source of the Arveron”’).
1878
National Gallery, London, various dates, 1878–1904 (319).
1934
Display of Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, March 1934–May 1937 (no catalogue; frame 1:13).
1938
La Peinture anglaise: XVIIIe & XIXe siècles, Louvre, Paris, February–August 1938 (236, as ‘Glacier at the Foot of Mont Blanc’).
1955
L’Aquarelle anglaise 1750–1850, British Council tour, Musée Rath, Geneva, October 1955–January 1956, Cabinet des Estampes de l’Ecole Polytehnique Fédérale, Zurich, January–March 1956 (115).
1978
Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Lent by the British Museum, Tate Gallery, London, January–June 1978 (no catalogue, as ‘Mont Blanc’).
1979
Turner’s First Visit to the Continent: Watercolours from the Turner Bequest Loaned by the British Museum, Tate Gallery, London, July–December 1979 (no catalogue, as ‘Source of the Arveiron’).
1981
Turner en France: aquarelles, peintures, dessins, gravures, carnets de croquis / Turner in France: Watercolours, Paintings, Drawings, Engravings, Sketchbooks, Centre Culturel du Marais, Paris, October 1981–January 1982 (19).
1983
J.M.W. Turner, à l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du British Council, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, October 1983–January 1984 (95, as ‘Glacier au pied du Mont Blanc’).
1988
Summer Miscellany: Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, July–October 1988 (no catalogue).
1998
Turner in the Alps 1802, Tate Gallery, London, November 1998–February 1999, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny, March–June 1999 (29).
1993
J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Impressions de Gran Bretanya i el Continent Europeu / Impresiones de Gran Bretaña y el Continente Europeo, Centre Cultural de la Fundació ”la Caixa”, Barcelona, September–November 1993, Sala de Exposiciones de la Fundación ”la Caixa”, Madrid, November 1993–January 1994 (18).
1994
J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Aquarelles et Dessins du Legs Turner: Collection de la Tate Gallery, Londres / Watercolours and Drawings from the Turner Bequest: Collection from the Tate Gallery, London, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Charleroi, September–December 1994 (19).
2007
Colour and Line: Turner’s Experiments, Tate Britain, London, April–November 2007 (no catalogue).
2007
Colour and Line: Turner’s Experiments [second hang], Tate Britain, London, November 2007–October 2008 (no catalogue).
References
1859
John Burnet and Peter Cunningham, Turner and his Works: Illustrated with Examples from his Pictures, and Critical Remarks on his Principles of Painting, 2nd ed., revised by Henry Murray, London 1859, p.117, as ‘Source of the Arveron. – Sketch’.
1862
Walter Thornbury, The Life of J.M.W. Turner, R.A. Founded on Letters and Papers Furnished by his Friends and Fellow-Academicians, London 1862 [1861], p.390, as ‘Source of the Arveron’.
1897
?Walter Thornbury, The Life of J.M.W. Turner, R.A. Founded on Letters and Papers Furnished by his Friends and Fellow-Academicians: A New Edition, Revised with 8 Coloured Illustrations after Turner’s Originals and 2 Woodcuts, London 1897, p.586.
1879
Philip Gilbert Hamerton, The Life of J. M. W. Turner, R.A., London 1879, p.185, as ‘Source of the Arveiron’.
1902
E.T. Cook (ed.), Ruskin on Pictures: A Collection of Criticisms by John Ruskin not heretofore Re-printed and now Re-edited and Re-arranged, vol.I, London 1902, p.169, as ‘The Source of the Arveron’.
1903
Charles Holme (ed.), Robert de la Sizeranne, Walter Shaw Sparrow and others, The Genius of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., London, Paris and New York 1903, reproduced pl.33: MW 10.
1904
E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn (eds.), Library Edition: The Works of John Ruskin: Volume XIII: Turner: The Harbours of England; Catalogues and Notes, London 1904, pp.267, 371, 624, 635 as ‘The Source of the Arveron’.
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.202, LXXV 21, as ‘Source of Arveiron’.
1938
Henry Verne, Laurence Binyon and Louis Gillet, La Peinture anglaise: XVIIIe & XIXe siècles, exhibition catalogue, Louvre, Paris 1938, no.236, as ‘Glacier at the Foot of Mont Blanc’.
1959
Kenneth Clark, Michel Florisoone, Geoffrey Grigson and others, The Romantic Movement: Fifth Exhibition to Celebrate the Tenth Anniversary of the Council of Europe, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery and Arts Council Gallery, London 1959, p.263.
1964
[Sir] John Rothenstein and Martin Butlin, Turner, London 1964, pp.7, 16, reproduced pl.17(a).
1965
John Gage, ‘Turner and the Picturesque – 1’, The Burlington Magazine, vol.107, January 1965, p.21.
1970
N.[Nicholas]A. Serota, ‘J.M.W. Turner’s Alpine Tours’, unpublished M.A. Report, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London 1970, pp.14, 19.
1974
Gerald Wilkinson, The Sketches of Turner, R.A. 1802–20: Genius of the Romantic, London 1974, pp.47 reproduced in colour, 49.
1975
Andrew Wilton, Turner in the British Museum: Drawings and Watercolours, exhibition catalogue, Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, London 1975, p.47.
1976
John Russell and Andrew Wilton, Turner in Switzerland, Zurich 1976, p.42 reproduced, as ‘Glacier at the Foot of Mont Blanc’, 135.
1979
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p.342.
1980
David Hill, Stanley Warburton, Mary Tussey and others, Turner in Yorkshire, exhibition catalogue, York City Art Gallery 1980, p.62.
1981
Lindsay Stainton in Maurice Guillaud and others, Turner en France: aquarelles, peintures, dessins, gravures, carnets de croquis / Turner in France: Watercolours, Paintings, Drawings, Engravings, Sketchbooks, exhibition catalogue, Centre Culturel du Marais, Paris 1981, pp.75, 77 reproduced in colour Fig.136.
1983
Andrew Wilton, in John Gage, Jerrold Ziff, Nicholas Alfrey and others, J.M.W. Turner, à l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du British Council, exhibition catalogue, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris 1983, p.178 reproduced, as ‘Glacier au pied du Mont Blanc’.
1993
Ian Warrell, J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Impressions de Gran Bretanya i el Continent Europeu / Impresiones de Gran Bretaña y el Continente Europeo, exhibition catalogue, Centre Cultural de la Fundació ”la Caixa”, Barcelona 1993, pp.84–5 reproduced in colour.
1994
Ian Warrell, J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Aquarelles et Dessins du Legs Turner: Collection de la Tate Gallery, Londres / Watercolours and Drawings from the Turner Bequest: Collection from the Tate Gallery, London, exhibition catalogue, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Charleroi 1994, pp.84–5 reproduced in colour.
1996
Gillian Forrester, Turner’s ‘Drawing Book’: The Liber Studiorum, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1996, p.122 note 1.
1998
David Blayney Brown, Turner in the Alps 1802, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1998, pp.98–9 reproduced in colour.
1999
David Blayney Brown, Turner et les Alpes 1802, exhibition catalogue, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny 1999, pp.980–9 reproduced in colour.
2000
David Hill, Joseph Mallord William Turner: Le Mont-Blanc et la Vallée d’Aoste, exhibition catalogue, Museo Archeologico Regionale, Aosta / Musée Archéologique Régional, Aoste 2000, pp.68, 273.
2000
Eric Shanes, ‘Identifying Turner’s Chamonix water-colours’, The Burlington Magazine, vol.142 no.1172, November 2000, p.692.
2010
Nicola Moorby and Ian Warrell (eds.), How to Paint like Turner, London 2010, pp.105 reproduced in colour, 106.
This vivid coloured drawing served as the basis of the watercolour made for Walter Fawkes and, as argued by David Hill and more recently by Eric Shanes, exhibited as Glacier and Source of the Arveron, Going up to the Mer de Glace at the Royal Academy in 1803 (National Museum of Wales, Cardiff).1 The fountain of the River Arveyron is shown in the immediate foreground, among the rocks of a cave at the base of the former Glacier du Bois emanating from the Mer de Glace. In the near middle distance are the ice-worn Rochers des Mottets and above, the peaks of the Aiguilles du Dru and Verte. As the present author noted at the time of the 1998 Tate/Martigny exhibition, Turner’s label ‘Chamoni source de Arveiron’ must have belonged to the drawing and he also listed ‘Source of the Arveron’ among subjects commissioned, in hand or ‘done’ at the front of his album of 1802 dawings (see Technical notes to the Grenoble sketchbook, Tate, Turner Bequest LXXIV). Technically and stylistically, the more finished Cardiff version is very close to the 1802 original, its emphasis on the contrasting surfaces and textures of ice and rock being, in Hill’s words, an example of the ‘theme of engagement with matter’ developed in Turner’s work after his Alpine tour.2 In the watercolour, Turner introduced a snake, ‘to provoke reflection on the pessimism of the postlapsarian curse, or on the utopianism of the natural idyll’.3
Turner made a coloured study on a larger separate sheet, concentrating on the source of the river and the glacier rather than the distant mountains and omitting the rocks in the foreground (D04887; Turner Bequest LXXIX M).
The present drawing, with another from this sketchbook (D04612; Turner Bequest LXXV 20), was used the plate The Source of the Arveron in the Valley of Chamouni Savoy for the Liber Studiorum, via the study (Tate D08161; Turner Bequest CXVIII G). Forrester suggests that this may have intended to form a pair with another Alpine subject, Mill near the Grande Chartreuse.4
Verso:
Blank
Inscribed by a later hand in pencil ‘3’ within a circle
David Blayney Brown
October 2011
How to cite
David Blayney Brown, ‘The Source of the Arveyron below the Glacier du Bois and Mer de Glace 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