Joseph Mallord William Turner
Grenoble Bridge
c. 1824
Physical Qualities
Transparent and opaque watercolor with scraping over traces of graphite, Sheet: 530 × 718 mm. (20 7/8 × 28 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Purchase with exchange funds from Nelson and Juanita Greif Gutman Collection
Object Number
1968.28
Turner based this view of Grenoble on sketches he had made twenty years earlier in 1802 when he traveled to the Continent during a brief interruption of hostilities with France. This watercolor, a consummate example of Turner’s “exhibition” style, provided an opportunity for the artist to show off his skills. Close inspection of the sky and mountains reveals successive layers of color applied in painstakingly minute brushstrokes to build up the tones. In other areas one can recognize Turner’s fluent use of wet and dry washes. Highlights on the costumes of the figures are scraped out and other areas are accentuated with opaque pigments.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 1968; Thomas Agnew & Sons, London; Mrs. Craven inherited from her mother, Lady Mirrielees, who inherited from her father Sir Donald Currie; Earl of Dudley; purchased by Thomas Agnew & Sons from sale, Christie's, December 3, 1975, lot 282; Thomas Greenwood of Sandfield Lodge; purchased Thomas Agnew & Sons from sale, Christie's, June 2, 1872, lot 626; Francis Broderip; Holford sale, Christie's, June 24, 1861, lot 28; painted for Charles Holford, Hampstead, 1824
Royal Academy, London, "Old Masters," 1907, no. 224.
Agnew's, London, "Centenary Loan Exhibtiion of Water-Colours Drawings by J.M.W. Turner, R.A.," February-March 1951, no. 22.
William Hayes Ackland Memorial Art Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, "English Watercolors and Drawings: 1700-1900," 21 September - 26 October 1975, cat 62.
Victor Carlson and Carol Hynning Smith, BMA, "Master Drawings and Watercolors of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries"; circulated by the American Federation of Arts to the Guggenheim Museum, NY, 24 August - 7 October 1979; Des Moines Art Center, 19 November 1979 - 6 January 1980; Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, 8 February - 16 March, 1980; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1 May - 22 June 1980 ; Denver Art Museum, 12 July - 24 August, 1980.
Centre Culterel du Marais, Paris, "Turner en France," 7 October 1981 - 10 January 1982, cat 164.
BMA, "Master Drawings and Watercolors of the 19th and 20th Centuries from the Museum Collection," 14 October - 28 November, 1982.
Jay Fisher, BMA, "Old Master Drawings from the BMA and Gilmor Collections," 10 October - 10 December, 1989.
Royal Academy of Fine Arts, London, 'Turner: The Great Watercolors,' December 2, 2000-February 18, 2001, cat 69.
Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany, 'J.M.W. Turner,' September 14, 2001 - January 6, 2002; tour to Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich, February 1, 2002 - May 26, 2002, cat 55.
Ann Shafer, BMA, "Taking in the View: English Watercolors and Prints," 27 August - 7 December 2008.
The Frick Collection, "Passages Through Time: Turner's Modern and Ancient Ports," February 22-May 14, 2017.
Agnew's, London, "Centenary Loan Exhibtiion of Water-Colours Drawings by J.M.W. Turner, R.A.," February-March 1951, no. 22.
William Hayes Ackland Memorial Art Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, "English Watercolors and Drawings: 1700-1900," 21 September - 26 October 1975, cat 62.
Victor Carlson and Carol Hynning Smith, BMA, "Master Drawings and Watercolors of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries"; circulated by the American Federation of Arts to the Guggenheim Museum, NY, 24 August - 7 October 1979; Des Moines Art Center, 19 November 1979 - 6 January 1980; Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, 8 February - 16 March, 1980; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1 May - 22 June 1980 ; Denver Art Museum, 12 July - 24 August, 1980.
Centre Culterel du Marais, Paris, "Turner en France," 7 October 1981 - 10 January 1982, cat 164.
BMA, "Master Drawings and Watercolors of the 19th and 20th Centuries from the Museum Collection," 14 October - 28 November, 1982.
Jay Fisher, BMA, "Old Master Drawings from the BMA and Gilmor Collections," 10 October - 10 December, 1989.
Royal Academy of Fine Arts, London, 'Turner: The Great Watercolors,' December 2, 2000-February 18, 2001, cat 69.
Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany, 'J.M.W. Turner,' September 14, 2001 - January 6, 2002; tour to Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich, February 1, 2002 - May 26, 2002, cat 55.
Ann Shafer, BMA, "Taking in the View: English Watercolors and Prints," 27 August - 7 December 2008.
The Frick Collection, "Passages Through Time: Turner's Modern and Ancient Ports," February 22-May 14, 2017.
Sir Walter Armstrong, "Turner," 1902, p. 256.
Gazette des Beaux-Arts supp., February 1969, no. 304, p. 72.
Diana F. Johnson, "Grenoble Bridge by J.M.W. Turner," Annual III, Baltimore Museum of Art 1968, pp. 39-41.
Ian Warrell, "Turner: The Fourth Decade Watercolours 1820-1830," London: Tate, 1991, cat 34B.
Jean-Claude Simoen, "Le Voyage en France," Paris: Edition Jean-Claude Lattes. 1997.
William Turner: licht und farbe; eine ausstellung in zusammenarbeit mit Tate; [Museum Folkwang Essen, 15.9.2001 bis 6.1.2002, Kunsthaus Zürich, 1.2.2002 bis 26.5.2002]. Köln: DuMont, 2001, page 301, no. 55 (published as “Brüke in Grenoble”).
"BMA Today," Baltimore Museum of Art, Fall 2008, p. 10.
"The Baltimore Museum of Art: Celebrating a Museum," The Baltimore Museum of Art, 2014, p. 50-51.
Galassi, Susan Grace, Ian Warrell, and Joanna Sheers Seidenstein. Turner's Modern and Ancient Ports: Passages Through Time. New York: The Frick Collection; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017, no. 39, p. 48.
Carlson, Victor, and Carol Hynning Smith. Master Drawings and Watercolors of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: The Baltimore Museum of Art. New York, NY: The American Federation of Arts, 1979, pp. 33, ill.
Inscribed: lower right in opaque watercolor: "JMWT"
Markings: WM: B.E.&S. / 1823 (Bally Ellen and Steart, de Montfort Mill, near Bath)
