drawing
- Museum number
- 1871,1111.3
- Description
-
Glacier des Bossons, Chamonix; near view of the glacier, with snowy peaks beyond, and green slopes, fringed with pines, in the foreground a traveller and figure on horseback at left, cows in a field at r. 1786
Watercolour
- Production date
- 1786
- Dimensions
-
Height: 174 millimetres
-
Width: 252 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- John Warwick Smith left Italy with Francis Towne and travelled home through Switzerland during the autumn of 1781. The Earl of Warwick’s collection included several Swiss watercolours and it may be assumed that these were made during this trip. They were dispersed after the Earl of Warwick’s sale on 17th June 1936 at Sotheby’s.
John Trevelyan at Wallington Hall also owned Alpine views, made by Smith after his return in England; some of them are dated between 1784 and 1787. Six watercolours remain at Wallington Hall, while two are in the collection of the British Museum and two in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
This watercolour, dated 1786, represents the Bosson Glacier, one of the glaciers of the Chamonix valley in the north slope of the Mount Blanc massif. According to Wilcox, Smith and Towne started their journey from the Italian Lakes, crossing the Splugen Pass into Switzerland and then choosing the Mont Blanc as climax of their trip.
This watercolour is from the collection of John Trevelyan; for information on the whole group, see 1871,1111.1.
Literature: see Timothy Wilcox, “Francis Towne”, Tate Gallery, 1997, pp. 88-90
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1990 Jul-Nov, Grasmere, Dove Cottage, Wordsworth and the Alps, (no cat.)
- Acquisition date
- 1871
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1871,1111.3