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Works (?) Thomas Girtin and Joseph Mallord William Turner after (?) John Robert Cozens

San Michele della Chiusa Viewed from Sant’Ambrogio di Torino

1794 - 1797

Primary Image: TG0511: (?) Thomas Girtin (1775–1802) and Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), after (?) John Robert Cozens (1752–97), San Michele della Chiusa Viewed from Sant’Ambrogio di Torino, 1794–97, graphite and watercolour on wove paper, 17.8 × 22.9 cm, 7 × 9 in. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, Gilbert Davis Collection (59.55.1277).

Photo courtesy of The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, Gilbert Davis Collection (All Rights Reserved)

Description
Creator(s)
(?) Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) and Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) after (?) John Robert Cozens (1752-1797)
Title
  • San Michele della Chiusa Viewed from Sant’Ambrogio di Torino
Date
1794 - 1797
Medium and Support
Graphite and watercolour on wove paper
Dimensions
17.8 × 22.9 cm, 7 × 9 in
Object Type
Collaborations; Monro School Copy
Subject Terms
Italian View: The North

Collection
Catalogue Number
TG0511
Description Source(s)
Viewed in 2001

Provenance

Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833); his posthumous sale, possibly Christie’s, 2 July 1833, lot 112, ‘Entrance of the Alps between Turin and Novalese’; bought by ‘Moon, Boys’ for £3 6s; ...  P & D Colnaghi & Co., 1951 as by Joseph Mallord William Turner; bought from them by Gilbert Davis (1899–1983); bought from him by the Gallery, 1959

Bibliography

The Huntington Online as 'Bridge and Mountain' by Joseph Mallord William Turner 'after John Robert Cozens'

About this Work

This distant view of the mountain-top monastery of San Michele della Chiusa seen from the village of Sant’Ambrogio di Torino displays many of the signs that mark the unique collaboration between Girtin and his contemporary Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) at the of Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833) at the Adelphi. Here the artists were employed across three winters, probably between 1794 and 1797, to make ‘finished drawings’ from the ‘Copies’ of the ‘outlines or unfinished drawings of Cozens’ and other artists, amateur and professional, either from Monro’s collection or lent for the purpose. As the two young artists later recalled, Girtin generally ‘drew in outlines and Turner washed in the effects’. ‘They went at 6 and staid till Ten’, which may account for the generally monochrome appearance of the works, and, as the diarist Joseph Farington (1747–1821) reported, Turner received ‘3s. 6d each night’, though ‘Girtin did not say what He had’ (Farington, Diary, 12 November 1798).

The drawing, hitherto known as A Covered Bridge with a Mountain Beyond, Possibly in Switzerland, can now be identified as a scene in north Italy. So, although the building in the foreground has not been identified, the view of the spectacularly located San Michele della Chiusa on Mount Pirchiriano seen from the village of Sant’Ambrogio is recogniseable from a number of contemporary sources, including an engraving by Edward Finden after a drawing by William Brockedon (1787–1854) titled ‘Monastery of St Michel above St Ambrogio’.1 Located above the Val di Susa north of Turin, the abbey was a prominent sight on the road between Italy and France and the distinctive form of the hill is visible in another Monro School view A Distant View of the Alps, Taken from the Plains North of Turin (TG0691). And as with that view, even though it has not been possible to trace the precise source of this image it is once again likely to have been made after a work by John Robert Cozens (1752–97) and, more specifically, from a sketch or tracing made on his return from Italy in 1779. If Monro School works such as TG0509 and TG0694 are a trustworthy guide, Cozens’ route took him over the spectacular crossing at Mont Cenis after following the Val di Susa north. The auction of the artist’s work held in July 1794 contained twenty-seven ‘books of sketches’ and many hundreds of drawings made on his travels, and, as Kim Sloan has argued, given that Monro’s posthumous sale contained only a few sketches by Cozens, the patron must have borrowed much of the material from which Girtin and Turner worked (Sloan and Joyner, 1993, pp.81–82).2 In this case, as is all too common, the sketch has either not survived or has not been recognised as Cozens’ work. Cozens actually crossed the Alps at Mont Cenis again in 1783, but none of the sketches he made in the last of the seven sketchbooks associated with that journey accord with a Monro School view, and a lost drawing from the earlier trip still seems the likeliest source.

San Michele della Chiusa Viewed from Sant’Ambrogio di Torino

The exact division of labour in the Monro School watercolours is rarely straightforward, however. In this case, the watercolour has always been attributed to Turner alone, and too little of the pencil drawing is visible to suggest with any great certainty that Girtin was also involved in its production. However, the fact that Turner’s watercolour washes predominate does not in itself mean that the work was not a collaborative effort, and a joint attribution with a small question mark against Girtin’s name is my best suggestion for this typical Monro School quandary. A second version of the composition also exists, possibly copied by John Monro (1801–80) after the work by Girtin and Turner (see figure 1). The use of colour certainly suggests that it was not copied from a Cozens sketch, and we can safely assume that if it, or a tracing, was the ultimate model for the composition here, then it left Monro’s hands well before his posthumous sale, which contained just a few of Cozens’ works.

1794 - 1797

A Distant View of the Alps, Taken from the Plains North of Turin

TG0691

1794 - 1797

The Village of Bramans in the Haute Maurienne in Savoy

TG0509

1794 - 1797

Lake Mont Cenis

TG0694

by Greg Smith

Footnotes

  1. 1 Included in Illustrations of the Passes of the Alps, by which Italy communicates with France, Switzerland, and Germany, London, 1827
  2. 2 A full record of the sale is available in the Documents section of the Archive (1794 – Item 1).

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