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Mont Blanc, from above Courmayeur

Maker

(artist)
1775-1851

Title

Date of Production

(circa) 1810

Medium

graphite, watercolour (applied in washes and with the point of the brush), bodycolour, with scraping on wove drawing cartridge paper

Dimensions

Height: 28.2 cm
Width: 39.9 cm

Accession Number

D.1974.STC.6

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

This is one of two watercolours that Turner made from material collected in 1802 while staying in Courmayeur, a remote border outpost at the head of the Val d’Aosta. To enhance the grandeur of the scenery in this view, he radically simplified his busy pencil sketches, smoothing the contours of the mountains and exaggerating their height. Shaded trees and slopes silhouette the light-filled gulley, out of which rises the snow-covered Mont Blanc, its hazy summit creating a feeling of infinite distance.

Provenance

probably commissioned by Sir William Pilkington, Chevet Hall (1775-1850); John Dillon, Manchester; his estate sale, Christie's (London), 17 April 1869, lot 44; bought in; J.F. Haworth, by 1918; purchased from him by Thomas Agnew & Sons (London), 25 November 1918; purchased there by Sir Stephen Courtauld (1883-1967), 11 February 1919; by descent to Jeanne Courtauld, 1972; presented by Jeanne Courtauld in memory of Stephen Courtauld, 1974

Exhibition History

The Courtauld Collection. A Vision for Impressionism, Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris, 20/02/2019-17/06/2019

A Dialogue with Nature: Romantic Landscapes from Britain and Germany, The Morgan Library, New York, 30/05/2014-07/09/2014

A Dialogue with Nature: Romantic Landscapes from Britain and Germany, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 30/01/2014-27/04/2014 ...More

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

Turner in Valle d'Aosta, Aosta & Italy, 27/06/2000-08/10/2000

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

Turner en France: aquarelles, peintures, dessins, gravures, carnets de croquis, Centre Culturel du Marais, Paris, 1981-82

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

Watercolours by J.M.W. Turner from the Sir Stephen Courtauld
Collection, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 1974 ...Less

Literature

Serres, Karen (ed.), The Courtauld Collection: A Vision for Impressionism, Paul Holberton Publishing 2019
ill. on p. 340

Paths to Fame: Turner Watercolours from The Courtauld Gallery, Wordsworth Trust; Courtauld Gallery, 2008-2009
no. 13
ill. on p. 83

Joseph Mallord Wiliam Turner: Le Mont-Blanc et la Vallee d'Aoste, Archaeological Museum of Aosta, 2000
no. 30
ill. ...More

J.M.W. Turner, "that greatest of landscape painters": watercolors from London museums, Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1998
no. 13
ill. on p. 99

J.M.W. Turner, 'That Greatest of Landscape Painters' - Watercolours from London Museums, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1998

Hill, David, Turner in the Alps: the journey through France and Switzerland in 1802, London, 1992
ill.

Turner en France, Centre Culturel du Marais, Paris, 1981-1982
no. 37
ill. on p. 117

Turner Prout Steer Three Bequests to the Courtauld Institute of Art, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, 1980
no. 5 (Turner)

Wilton, Andrew, The life and work of J.M.W. Turner, London, 1979
no. 393
ill.

English Landscape Drawing and Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 1977
cat. no. 26

Russell, John and Andrew Wilton, Turner in Switzerland, Zurich, De Clivo Press, 1976
p. 49
ill. on p. 49

Kitson, Michael, Watercolours by J.M.W. Turner: Turner watercolours from the collection of Stephen Courtauld, London, Courtauld Institute of Art, 1974
no. 5 ...Less

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