Walter C. Baker, a significant drawings collector who served as The Met’s vice president, donated this Turner watercolor to the Museum. We look southwest along the Arc River gorge toward the Fort of L’Esseillon, a stepped construction on a slope in the middle distance, with snowcapped peaks beyond. The complex was built between 1819 and 1836 to guard the Mont-Cenis Pass into Italy after France ceded Savoy to Piedmont. Turner likely borrowed details of the composition from an engraved illustration in an 1827 book written by his friend William Brockedon. The drawing’s detailed handling suggests a date in the 1830s, though it was likely finished before the artist set out for France in 1836—a tour during which he typically worked in a looser manner.
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Title:The Fort of L'Esseillon, Val de la Maurienne, France
Artist:Joseph Mallord William Turner (British, London 1775–1851 London)
Date:1835–36
Medium:Watercolor
Dimensions:sheet: 7 3/4 x 11 in. (19.7 x 28 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Bequest of Walter C. Baker, 1971
Accession Number:1972.118.293
Possibly Thomas Greenwood (British), sold at the following; Christie's, London, March 12-13, 1875, lot 245 or 247 (both titled "Sisteron"); John Edward Taylor (British)(by 1891), sold at the following; Sale, Christie's, London, July 5 & 8, 1912, lot 53; Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., bought at the preceding; Mrs Arthur A. Allen, London, sold at the following; Sale, Sotheby's, London, May 15, 1957, no. 63, repr.; Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., bought at the preceding; Walter C. Baker (American)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Walter C. Baker Collection of Drawings," June 2–September 4, 1960.
Museo Archeologico Regionale, Aosta, Italy. "Joseph Mallord William Turner: Le Mont-Blanc et la Vallée d'Aoste," July 8, 2000–October 8, 2000.
Newark Museum. "The Rockies and the Alps: Bierstadt, Calame and the Romance with the Mountains," March 23, 2018–August 19, 2018.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints: Collectors' Collections," February 19–October 5, 2020.
Wilton 1450 (as "Sisteron, Basse Alpes")
Christie, Manson and Woods Catalogue of the Highly Important and Beautiful Collection of Water-Colour Drawings formed with Great Taste and Judgment by that Well-Known Amateur Thomas Greenwood, Esq. [Sale catalogue]. London, March 12–13, 1875, cat. no. lot 245 or 247.
William Brockedon Illustrations of the Passes of the Alps: by which Italy communicates with France, Switzerland, and Germany. Henry G. Bohn, vols. 1 and 2, 2nd ed. London, 1877.
Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters, and by Deceased Masters of the British School, etc. Exh. cat. London: Royal Academy of Arts, Winter Exhibition. London, 1891, "Landscape View in Savoy," lent by John Edward Taylor, cat. no. 85.
Sir Walter Armstrong Turner. Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., Charles Scribner's Sons, 2 vols., 1902, as Sisteron, Basses Alpes [J. E. Taylor, Esq., R. A. 1891], p. 277.
Christie, Manson and Woods Catalogue of the Highly Important Collection of Drawings by J.M.W. Turner, R.A. and Modern Pictures and Drawings formed by the late John Edward Taylor, Esq. [Sale catalogue]. London, July 5 and 8, 1912, Sold to Agnew's, cat. no. 53, p. 20.
Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd. Centenary Exhibition of Water-Colour Drawings by J.M.W. Turner, R.A.. February–March, 1951, cat. no. 68.
Art Prices Current. William Dawson & Sons Ltd., May 15, 1957, cat. no. 3246, p. 128.
Sotheby's, London Drawings sale. Sale catalogue. May 15, 1957, lot 63, sold by Mrs. Arthur Allen, London.
Otto Gerson Gallery Joseph Mallord William Turner Watercolors and Drawings. Exh. cat. November 9– December 10, 1960, Sisterron, Basses, Alpes; Lent by Mrs. Walter C. Baker, NYC, cat. no. 30.
Claus Virch Master Drawings in the Collection of Walter C. Baker. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1962, cat. no. 110, p. 62.
Andrew Wilton J.M.W. Turner: His Art and Life. Rizzoli, New York, 1979, cat. no. 1450, p. 474, ill.
Lindsay Stainton J.M.W. Turner Watercolors from the British Museum. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, GA., 1982, cat. no. 74, p. 75, ill.
Charles Nugent, Melva Croal "Collectors of Turner Watercolors in Nineteenth Century Manchester": Turner Watercolors from Manchester. Ex. cat. The Trust for Museum Exhibitions, Washington, D.C., March 14, 1997-May 24, 1998, pp. 15-20.
Philip Rylands The Timeless Eye: Master Drawings from the Jan and Marie-Anne Krugier-Pontiatowski Collection Exh. cat., Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice. G. H. Verlag, Berlin, September-December 1999, cat. no. 93, pp. 200-201, ill.
David Hill Joseph Mallord Turner : Le Mont Blanc et la Vallée d'Aoste. [Published to accompany the exhibition of Turner, Mont Blanc and the Valley of Aosta at the Archaeological Museum of Aosta, 8 July-8 October 2000]. Pregione Autonoma Valle d'Aosta, Studio Roberta Ciappi, Milan, 2000, cat. no. 74, pp. 292-3, ill.
Katherine Manthorne, Tricia Laughlin Bloom, Patricia Mainardi, James M. Saslow The Rockies and The Alps: Bierstadt, Calame, and the Romance of the Mountains. Exh. cat., Newark Museum, March 24-August 19. 2018, cat. no. 25, pp. 66-67, ill.
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