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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > History Painting c.1799-1807 > Calais Pier Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Composition Study for 'Lake of Geneva with Mont Blanc'; Study of a Boat c.1799-1805

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Composition Study for 'Lake of Geneva with Mont Blanc'; Study of a Boat’ c.1799-1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 66 Recto:
Composition Study for ‘Lake of Geneva with Mont Blanc’; Study of a Boat c.1799–1805
D05031
Turner Bequest LXXXI 129
Black and white chalks on blue laid paper, 436 x 271 mm
Watermarks ‘1794’ and Strasburg lily
Inscribed by Turner in ink ‘Do’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘LXXXI–129’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, the upper study is one of a sequence made in preparation for Turner’s large watercolour of about 1805, Lake of Geneva, with Mont Blanc from the Lake (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven);1 see under folio 8 verso (D04917; Turner Bequest LXXXI 16). Turner’s ‘Do’ (for ditto) refers to his inscription ‘L Geneva’ on folio 65 verso opposite (D05030; Turner Bequest LXXXI 128).
The lower sketch is a generalised study of the foremost fishing boat in the painting Dutch Boats in a Gale: Fishermen Endeavouring to Put their Fish on Board (‘The Bridgewater Seapiece’), exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1801 (private collection, on loan to the National Gallery, London),2 which is studied in greater detail on folios 62 verso–63 recto and 64 verso–65 recto (D05024–D05025, D05028–D05029; Turner Bequest LXXXI 122–123, 126–127).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.342 no.370, reproduced.
2
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.12–13 no.14, pl.11 (colour).

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Composition Study for ‘Lake of Geneva with Mont Blanc’; Study of a Boat c.1799–1805 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-composition-study-for-lake-of-geneva-with-mont-blanc-study-r1178235, accessed 17 July 2024.