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Bonneville (recto)

Maker

(artist)
1775-1851

Title

Bonneville (recto)

Date of Production

1802

Medium

graphite, watercolour, white and yellow bodycolour, with scratching out (recto), graphite (verso) on wove paper prepared with a grey wash on both sides (Peter Bower suggests that given the fading of the grey on this and other sheets this ground was Turner's and not commercially made), now laid down on Japanese tissue

Dimensions

Height: 31.6 cm
Width: 47.9 cm

Accession Number

D.1974.STC.5

Mode of Acquisition

Jeanne Courtauld, gift, in memory of Sir Stephen Courtauld, 1974

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

With its magnificent backdrop of Mont Blanc, Bonneville was regarded by travellers as a symbolic gateway to the Alps. From the number of sketches Turner made on his 1802 tour, including this large monochrome study, he was evidently aware of the appeal of the subject for collectors.

Using an overall palette of greys and browns and touches of white over grey-tinted paper, the artist subtly evokes the mood and atmosphere of mountain scenery. Sunlight falls across a straight road, its receding perspective inspired by Nicholas Poussin’s oil painting Roman Road (1648) that Turner much admired.

Notes

Submitted to the 1803 RA exhibition and among those views gathered on his 1802 Continental tour. This was the basis for a painting now known as 'Chateaux de St Michael, Bonneville, Savoy' (Yale Center for British Art). Stephen Courtauld also formerly owned the other major Bonneville painting, now in the Dallash Museum of Fine Art.

Provenance

John Ruskin (1819-1900), by 1878; bequeathed to his cousin and heir, Joan Agnew Severn (1846-1924) and her husband, Joseph Arthur Palliser Severn (1842-1931), 1900; Reverend William MacGregor (1848-1937), by 1902; his estate sale, Christie's (London), 23 April 1937, lot 9; purchased there by Cawston; anonymous sale, Christie's (London), 17 December 1937, lot 55; purchased there by Yates; Sir Stephen Courtauld (1883-1967); by descent to Miss Jeanne Courtauld (1910-2003); Gift in memory of Sir Stephen Courtauld 1974

Exhibition History

Paths to Fame - Turner's Watercolour Landscapes, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 30/10/2008-25/01/2009

Paths to Fame - Turner's Watercolour Landscapes, Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, England, 16/07/2008-12/10/2008

J.M.W. Turner, 'That Greatest of Landscape Painters' -
Watercolours from London Museums, Tulsa, USA, 08/02/1998-12/04/1998 ...More

Turner, Prout, Steer - Three Bequests to the Courtauld Institute
Galleries, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 1980

English Landscape Drawing and Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 01/05/1977-01/06/1977

William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit, Kunsthalle, Hamburg, 19/05/1976-18/07/1976

J.M.W. Turner: Bonneville, Savoy, Thomas Agnews & Sons, London, 01/07/1974-19/07/1974

Watercolours by J. M. W. Turner from the Collection of Sir Stephen Courtauld, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, May 1974-May 1974

Centenary loan exhibition of water-colour drawings by J.M.W. Turner, R.A, Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 1951

Notes by Mr. Ruskin on his drawings by the late J.M.W. Turner, R.A., exhibited at the Fine Art Society's galleries, Fine Art Society, London, 1900

Catalogue of the loan collection of pictures and drawings by J.M.W. Turner, R.A., and of a selection of pictures by some of his contemporaries, Guildhall Art Gallery, London, 1899

Notes by Mr. Ruskin on his drawings by the late J.M.W. Turner, R.A., exhibited at the Fine Art Society's galleries, Fine Art Society, London, 1878 ...Less

Literature

J.M.W. Turner, 'That Greatest of Landscape Painters' - Watercolours from London Museums, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1998
cat. no. 7
ill. on p. 87

Blayney Brown, David, Turner in the Alps, 1802, London 1998
p. 86 under no. 23

Hawes, Louis, Presences of Nature: British Landscape 1780-1830, New Haven 1982
p. 121 under no. I.15. ...More

Turner en France, Centre Culturel du Marais, Paris, 1981-1982
p. 70 under no. 15

Turner Prout Steer Three Bequests to the Courtauld Institute of Art, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, 1980
no. 3 (Turner)

Wilton, Andrew, The life and work of J.M.W. Turner, London, 1979
no. 355

English Landscape Drawing and Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 1977
cat. no. 23

William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit, Kunsthalle, Hamburg, 1976
cat. no. 14

Russell, John and Andrew Wilton, Turner in Switzerland, Zurich, De Clivo Press, 1976
p. 137

Kitson, Michael, Watercolours by J.M.W. Turner: Turner watercolours from the collection of Stephen Courtauld, London, Courtauld Institute of Art, 1974
no. 2

Armstrong, Sir Walter, Turner, London, Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1902
p. 243

Ruskin, John, The works of John Ruskin, 1878
XIII, p. 419 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: none.

Inscription: none.

Collector's mark: none.

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