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

D25381, D25384, D25385, D25439, D25444, D34185, D34186, D40346, D34188, D34195, D34277–D34291, D34507, D34508, D34513, D34514, D34881–D34883, D34888–D34890, D34894–D34896, D34898, D34906, D34907, D34916, D35879, D35887, D35891, D35892, D35936, D35964, D35971, D35974, D35979, D35996, D36058, D36083, D36109, D36175, D36176, D36212, D36223, D36226, D36230, D36236, D36240, D36267, D36269

Turner Bequest CCLXIII 258, 261, 262, 316, 321, CCCXLII 1, 2, 4, 11, 75–86, CCCXLIV 144, 144v, 149, 150, 389–391, 394–396, 400–402, 404, 412, 413, 421, CCCLXIV 40, 47, 51, 51v, 93, 121, 128, 131, 136, 152, 212, 237, 262, 317, 318 351, 361, 364, 368, 374, 377, 399, 401

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

The sheets catalogued in this section are associated with Turner’s 1836 tour of the Alps, which he made in the company of the wealthy Scottish landowner, Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro of Novar (1797–1864). For the full itinerary and information about the sketchbooks Turner used during this tour, see the overall Introduction to the present section by David Hill within this publication. As Hill notes, Munro detailed his recollections of the trip in two letters written to John Ruskin in 1857 (Ruskin Library, University of Lancaster1) and for Turner’s biographer, Walter Thornbury;2 as such, key details about the 1836 tour are known and form an important starting point for the cataloguing of both the sketchbooks and the present group of related loose sheets.

Most relevant to the studies in the present grouping is Turner’s Alpine itinerary, which Hill laid out in full in his Introduction. Most of the studies catalogued here relate to the section of the tour that began at Geneva and saw Turner and Munro follow the Arve Valley to Chamonix before taking the Col du Bonhomme mountain pass around Mont Blanc to Courmayeur and the Val d’Aosta, which they traversed.

The grouping contains a mixture of pencil studies and colour studies; in terms of the paper supports, both rectangular and square formats were used. Particularly notable is a small group of colour studies showing the summit of Mont Blanc under different light conditions, made in the Chamonix area using an almost luminous-seeming colour palette (for more information, see the entry for Tate D35996; Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 152). Turner also made some notable colour studies of Lake Geneva (see the entry for Tate D36058; Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 212), and completed a number of other individual colour studies to a relatively high degree of finish. These colour studies are joined by numerous loose pencil sketches, often with the addition of white chalk highlights on mid-toned paper (see the entry for Tate D34195; Turner Bequest CCCXLII 11), while other pencil studies were made on white paper, sometimes with the addition of watercolour. Interestingly, Munro’s testimony suggests that Turner made use of watercolour while working directly from nature during the 1836 tour, rather than restricting himself to pencil sketches while in front of the subject itself (as was often his practice).3 This perhaps explains the large number of colour studies associated with the 1836 tour.

While these studies reveal Turner’s continued interest in the high peaks of the Mont Blanc range and the Val d’Aosta in 1836, as Hill has also noted,4 they are less concerned with finding dramatic viewpoints than the sketches Turner made during his first tour of the Alps in 1802, when he visited many of the same sights. Instead, the studies associated with the 1836 tour present a more varied depiction of the landscape and, on occasion, its people.

For the most part the sketches included here can be quite firmly connected to the 1836 tour – this is largely thanks to the very extensive work undertaken by Hill in relation to his 2000 exhibition and catalogue, which explored the 1836 material extensively. There are a few exceptions, particularly among sheets more recently connected to the grouping. These have for the most part been dated to c.1836 because their connection with this particular tour is less certain.