Бонвиль, Савойя

For most of Turner's young life, war with France had kept British travellers off the Continent. Then in 1802 a short-lived peace opened the border, and Turner crossed at once, making for the Alps he had only ever seen in other men's pictures. He came back with sketchbooks full of Savoy and worked this view up for the Royal Academy show of 1803. It looks calm enough, a broad valley with a few figures and grazing animals in the foreground. But keep looking into the distance and the snow-capped wedge of Mont Blanc rises over it all, the highest peak in the Alps, the thing he had crossed a continent at the first chance to reach.