'Mézières, with the Pont de Pierre and Church of Notre-Dame', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Mézières, with the Pont de Pierre and Church of Notre-Dame

Date c.1839

MediumGouache and watercolour on paper

Dimensionssupport: 139 x 193 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Reference

D24731

Turner Bequest CCLIX 166

View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms

Display caption

In 1839 Turner was fascinated by the complex fortifications of Mézières and its imposing sixteenth-century church crowned by a classical tower, and recorded them in numerous sketches. The domed top storey of the church shown here was replaced by a tall, tapering spire in the late 1850s, but its previous appearance is recorded in two of the earliest known photographs of Mézières, believed to date from 1855. The sight of such monumental buildings inspired Turner to paint one of his grandest gouache studies, reminiscent of his own historical oil paintings of a much earlier period such as 'The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire' of 1817 (Gallery 106).

September 2004