Mer de Glace, Chamonix
Maker
(artist)
1819-1900
1819-1900
Title
Mer de Glace, Chamonix
Date of Production
(circa?) 1844 - 1849
Medium
graphite and watercolour on wove paper
Dimensions
Height: 25.1 cm
Width: 35 cm
Width: 35 cm
Accession Number
D.2001.XX.2
Mode of Acquisition
Kathleen Jonas, gift, 2001 (18 January)
Credit
The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)
Copyright
Work in the public domain
Location
Not currently on display
Keywords
Label Text
The second largest glacier in the Alps, the Mer de Glace excited the imagination of numerous nineteenth-century artists and writers. Observing the glacier in close proximity, Ruskin evokes the roughness of the terrain, contrasting the jagged peaks of ice and gaping blue crevasses with the rocky brown slopes and boulders. The view accords with contemporary notions of the Sublime, experienced as feelings of awe and fear. Yet at the same time the artist reveals a sound knowledge of mountain structure – the ideal combination of imagination and truth strongly advocated by Ruskin.
Provenance
Kathleen Jonas; Jonas Gift 2001
Exhibition History
Return to Darkness, Musée Rath, Geneva, 02/12/2016-19/03/2017
Life, Legend, Landscape - Victorian Drawings and Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 17/02/2011-15/05/2011
Art at the Rockface, Millennium Galleries, Sheffield, 23/09/2006-07/01/2007 ...More
Art at the Rockface, Norwich Castle Museum, 22/05/2006-03/09/2006 ...Less
Life, Legend, Landscape - Victorian Drawings and Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 17/02/2011-15/05/2011
Art at the Rockface, Millennium Galleries, Sheffield, 23/09/2006-07/01/2007 ...More
Art at the Rockface, Norwich Castle Museum, 22/05/2006-03/09/2006 ...Less
Literature
Musée Rath, Geneva, 2 December 2016 - 19 March 2017, Le Retour des Tenebres: L'imaginaire Gothique depuis Frankenstein, Musumeci 2016
ill. on p. 115
Life, Legend, Landscape: Victorian Drawings & Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, 2011
no. 20
ill. on p. 91
Life, Legend, Landscape - Victorian Drawings and Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, 2011
cat. no. 20
ill. on p. 91
ill. on p. 115
Life, Legend, Landscape: Victorian Drawings & Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, 2011
no. 20
ill. on p. 91
Life, Legend, Landscape - Victorian Drawings and Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, 2011
cat. no. 20
ill. on p. 91
Inscriptions
Watermark: Watermark: none.
Inscription: Recto: lower right corner, graphite, described: "Mer de Glace / nr. the Petits Ponts". Verso: centre, graphite: "mount".
Collector's mark: none.
Inscription: Recto: lower right corner, graphite, described: "Mer de Glace / nr. the Petits Ponts". Verso: centre, graphite: "mount".
Collector's mark: none.
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