Les Contamines, Dawn: Looking towards St Gervais and Mont Blanc 1802 by Joseph Mallord William Turner

David Blayney Brown

Joseph Mallord William Turner Les Contamines, Dawn: Looking towards St Gervais and Mont Blanc 1802

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Les Contamines, Dawn: Looking towards St Gervais and Mont Blanc 1802

D04616
Turner Bequest LXXV 24

Pencil, black chalk, watercolour and white gouache with scratching out on white wove paper prepared with grey wash, 320 x 475 mm
Stamped in black ‘LXXV 24’ 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

1878

National Gallery, London, various dates, 1878–1904 (552, as ‘Contamines, Savoy’).

1934

Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, March 1934–? (no catalogue; frame 9).

British Watercolours 1750–1850: A Loan Exhibition from the Victoria and Alber Museum,.

1966

International Exhibitions Foundation tour, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, Worcester Art Museum, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Seattle Art Musseum, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, St Louis City Art Museum, Cleveland Museum of Art, November 1966–November 1967 (21, as ‘Contamines, near Mont Blanc’).

1976

Turner und die Schweiz, Kunsthaus, Zürich, October 1976–January 1977 (24, as ‘Contamines with 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 ‘Contamines’).

1983

J.M.W. Turner, à l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du British Council, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, October 1983–January 1984 (96).

1985

Turner Abroad: France; Italy; Germany; Switzerland, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, May–June 1985, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, July–August 1985, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, September–October 1985 (6).

1987

Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, April–October 1987 (no catalogue).

1997

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Bank Austria Kunstforum, Vienna, March–June 1997 (19).

1997

J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: A Tate Gallery Collection Exhibition, Yokohama Museum of Art, June–August 1997, Fukuoka Art Museum, September–October 1997, Nagoya City Art Museum, October–December 1997 (16).

1998

Turner in the Alps 1802, Tate Gallery, London, November 1998–February 1999, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny, March–June 1999 (36).

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.

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 ‘Contamines, Savoy’.

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.

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.228.

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.371, 635.

1909

A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.202, LXXV 24, as ‘Contamines’.

1966

Jonathan Mayne, British Watercolours 1750–1850: A Loan Exhibition from the Victoria and Alber Museum, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston 1966, pp.21, 48 reproduced.

1982

Andrew Wilton, Turner Abroad: France; Italy; Germany; Switzerland, London 1982, p.33 reproduced in colour pl.6.

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.179 reproduced.

1985

Andrew Wilton, Turner Abroad: France; Italy; Germany: Switzerland, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 1985, p.33 reproduced in colour pl.6.

1992

David Hill, Turner in the Alps: The Journey through France & Switzerland in 1802, London 1992, pp.66 reproduced in colour, 67, 168.

1997

David Blayney Brown, Klaus Albrecht Schröder, Evelyn Benesch and others, Joseph Mallord William Turner, exhibition catalogue, Bank Austria Kunstforum, Vienna 1997, p.140 reproduced in colour.

1997

David B[layney] Brown, Yasuhide Shimbata and Hideko Numata, J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: A Tate Gallery Collection Exhibition, exhibition catalogue, Yokohama Museum of Art 1997, p.60 reproduced in colour.

1998

David Blayney Brown, Turner in the Alps 1802, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1998, pp.112–3 reproduced in colour.

1999

David Blayney Brown, Turner et les Alpes 1802, exhibition catalogue, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny 1999, pp.112–3 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.71, 276.

This subject was first identified by John Ruskin, doubtless from the inscription ‘Contamines’ in Turner’s hand on the leaf originally adjoining it in the sketchbook (D04617; Turner Bequest LXXV 25). Turner passed through the village of Les Contamines, in the Val Montjoie, after climbing the Col de Voza and before negotiating the Col du Bonhomme, on his way from Chamonix to Courmayeur. He would have stayed overnight and the dawn light so vividly shown here, breaking over the ridge of Mont Blanc on the right, suggests an early rise before the long day’s trek over the Col du Bonhomme to Courmayeur. One of the groups of three figures sketched here might be Turner himself, his travelling companion Newbey Lowson and their guide.

In his catalogue note for the National Gallery, John Ruskin cited this drawing as evidence of the ‘gloomy cast of thought’ in the subjects from this sketchbook.1

Ruskin on Pictures; Cook 1902, p.228.

Verso:

Blank

Inscribed by a later hand in pencil ‘1’

David Blayney Brown
November 2011

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Les Contamines, Dawn: Looking towards St Gervais and Mont Blanc 1802 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 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-les-contamines-dawn-looking-towards-st-gervais-and-mont-r1146521, accessed 21 November 2024.

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Joseph Mallord William Turner Les Contamines, Dawn: Looking towards St Gervais and Mont Blanc 1802

Exhibition history

References

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

Joseph Mallord William Turner Les Contamines, Dawn: Looking towards St Gervais and Mont Blanc 1802

Exhibition history

References

How to cite