Oil paint on canvas
France
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on loan
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Turner Bequest
Oil paintings
Collection
Turner owned by Tate
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner-558" aria-label="More by Joseph Mallord William Turner" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Joseph Mallord William Turner</a>
Grenoble Seen River Drac with Mont Blanc in Distance
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Alps
architecture
bank
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
cloud
countries and continents
France
Grenoble - non-specific
landscape
Mont Blanc
Mont St Eynard
mountain
natural features (non-UK)
places
river
River Drac
townscape, distant
townscapes / man-made features
water: inland
weather
<p>This oil sketch of Grenoble in France, with Mont St Eynard and the snow-capped Mont Blanc in the distance, was painted after Turner’s 1802 tour, while his recollection of the landscape was fresh. The tour yielded over a hundred drawings of Grenoble and surrounding mountains. In his Grenoble sketchbook Turner made vigorous drawings in pencil and white and black chalk on tinted brown paper – opaque media that allowed him to work with dramatic light and dark tones, in preparation for finished oil paintings. On the strength of these drawings, several paintings, larger in scale</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2010</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
19 December 2003 – 17 April 2004
2004-04-17
19 December 2003 – 17 April 2004
2004-04-17
2003-12-19
Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto (Rovereto, Italy)
http://www.mart.trento.it
2003-12-19
Montana: From Leonardo to Beuys, between Science and Art
Loan-out
5 August 2009 – 19 July 2010
2010-07-19
5 August 2009 – 19 July 2010
2010-07-19
2009-08-05
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-08-05
Turner Abroad
Collection based display
8 February 2013 – 13 April 2014
2014-04-13
8 February 2013 – 19 May 2013
2013-05-19
2013-02-08
Art Gallery of South Australia (Adelaide, Australia)
http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au
4 June 2013 – 8 September 2013
2013-09-08
2013-06-04
National Gallery of Australia (Canberra, Australia)
8 October 2013 – 18 December 2013
2013-12-18
2013-10-08
Toyko Metropolitan Art Museum (Toyko, Japan)
1 January 2014 – 13 April 2014
2014-04-13
2014-01-01
Kobe City Museum (Kobe, Japan)
2013-02-08
J.M.W. Turner: Makings of a Master
Loan-out
6 July 2019 – 2 May 2021
2021-05-02
6 July 2019 – 13 October 2019
2019-10-13
2019-07-06
Kunstmuseum (Luzern, Switzerland)
http://www.kunstmuseumluzern.ch
8 November 2019 – 26 January 2020
2020-01-26
2019-11-08
LWL-Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Westfälisches (Munster, Germany)
http://landesmuseum.lwl.org
20 February 2020 – 7 September 2020
2020-09-07
2020-02-20
Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville, USA)
15 October 2020 – 2 May 2021
2021-05-02
2020-10-15
Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec (Québec, Canada)
http://www.mnba.qc.ca
2019-07-06
The Sea and the Alps: Turner's Quest for the Sublime
Tate partnerships & programmes
28 October 2023 – 10 March 2024
2024-03-10
28 October 2023 – 10 March 2024
2024-03-10
2023-10-28
Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus (Munich, Germany)
2023-10-28
Turner at Lenbachhaus Munich
Loan-out
6 July 2024 – 15 January 2028
2028-01-15
6 July 2024 – 1 September 2024
2024-09-01
2024-07-06
Grimaldi Forum (Monaco, Monaco)
30 September 2024 – 7 May 2025
2025-05-07
2024-09-30
Museum of Art Pudong (Shanghai, China)
21 June 2025 – 5 October 2025
2025-10-05
2025-06-21
Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art (Brisbane, Australia)
1 June 2026 – 1 October 2026
2026-10-01
2026-06-01
External
15 November 2026 – 15 March 2027
2027-03-15
2026-11-15
External
1 May 2027 – 1 September 2027
2027-09-01
2027-05-01
External
15 October 2027 – 15 January 2028
2028-01-15
2027-10-15
External
2024-07-06
Turner's Sublime Legacy
Tate partnerships & programmes
Grenoble Seen from the River Drac with Mont Blanc in the Distance
support: 362 × 641 mm
frame: 585 × 863 × 83 mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the <a href="/search?gid=999999781" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Turner Bequest</a> 1856
<p>This oil sketch of Grenoble in France, with Mont St Eynard and the snow-capped Mont Blanc in the distance, was painted after Turner’s 1802 tour, while his recollection of the landscape was fresh. The tour yielded over a hundred drawings of Grenoble and surrounding mountains. In his Grenoble sketchbook Turner made vigorous drawings in pencil and white and black chalk on tinted brown paper – opaque media that allowed him to work with dramatic light and dark tones, in preparation for finished oil paintings. On the strength of these drawings, several paintings, larger in scale</p>

Display caption
2010-02-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>145a. </b>[<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-grenoble-seen-from-the-river-drac-with-mont-blanc-in-the-distance-n02988" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02988</span></a>]<b> Grenoble seen from the River Drac with Mont Blanc in the Distance</b> <i>c.</i> 1802–3
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (2988)
<br/>Canvas, 14 1/4 × 25 1/4 (36 × 64)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856; transferred to the Tate Gallery 1919.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> Dresden (repr.) and Berlin 1972 (1).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Martin Butlin in ‘Picture Notes’, <i>Turner Studies</i>, ii, no. 1, Summer 1982, pp. 56–7, pl. 1.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Hitherto thought to represent a view in North Italy (and sometimes identified as the Val d'Aosta), this small oil <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> was catalogued in the first edition of this catalogue as No. 255, ‘River Scene, North Italy’, and tentatively dated ‘<i>c.</i> 1820–30?’. Now, thanks to M. Léon Reymond (letter of 16 November 1981 in the Tate Gallery files) the subject has been identified as a distant view of Grenoble, with the River Drac in the foreground and Mont Blanc in the distance on the right. The flat-topped mountain is Mont St. Eynard.
<br/>
<br/>This identification is confirmed by comparison with a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> in the ‘Grenoble’ Sketchbook (LXXIV-O; repr. Butlin, <i>op. cit.</i>, pl. 2). This sketchbook, now dismembered, dates from Turner's first visit to the French Alps in 1802. The only other on-the-spot sketches of Grenoble by Turner seem to date from late in Turner's career, about 1835 or later (in the ‘Genoa to Grenoble’ Sketchbook, CCXCV’, the ‘Grenoble’ Sketchbook, CCCXL, and among miscellaneous black and white drawings, CCXXLII-13, 14, 16, 17, 19 and 20; examples are repr. exh. cat., Paris 1981–2, <i>passim</i>). The oil sketch is certainly not as late as this and one must assume that it was painted during or soon after Turner's first trip to France while his recollection of the site was still fresh. In the solid modelling of the forms and the interest in geometrical masses this work resembles Turner's Poussinesque <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscapes</span></a> of Bonneville, exhibited in 1803 (Nos. 46 and 50).
<br/>
<br/>The top paint layer has suffered from overcleaning in the middle distance on the right and in an area below and slightly to the left of the towers in the centre of the picture.</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, <i>The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner</i>, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-23T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
Alps architecture bank cities, towns, villages (non-UK) cloud countries and continents France Grenoble - non-specific landscape Mont Blanc Mont St Eynard mountain natural features (non-UK) places river River Drac townscape, distant townscapes / man-made features water: inland weather