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

This study relates to Turner’s 1836 tour of the Alps, which he made in the company of the wealthy Scottish landowner H.A.J. Munro of Novar; for more information, see the Introduction to this section.

Turner and Munro presumably spent at least a couple of days in the French town of Chamonix, at the foot of Mont Blanc, as Turner made numerous sketches there in the Val d’Aosta sketchbook (see Tate D29071, D29074, D29080–D29084, D29102; Turner Bequest CCXCIII 20a, 22, 25–27, 36). He also made some pencil studies on loose sheets (Tate D34282–D34283 and D34287; Turner Bequest CCCXLII 79–80 and 83) and a group of colour studies; see the entry for D35936 (Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 93).

This sheet has been annotated ‘Les Tines’ in the bottom left, seemingly in the nineteenth-century by the art critic John Ruskin. This settlement is just down the Arve valley from Chamonix, and Turner’s viewpoint appears to look towards Les Tines, with the rugged peak of the Aiguille du Dru shown in the upper right.

Verso:

Blank, save for inscriptions: inscribed in pencil ‘AB24P.O’ bottom right.