J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > First Italian Tour 1819-20 > Return from Italy Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lyon from the River Saône, with the Pont de la Mulatière 1820

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lyon from the River Saône, with the Pont de la Mulatière’ 1820
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 39 Recto:
Lyon from the River Saône, with the Pont de la Mulatière 1820
D16715
Turner Bequest CXCII 38
Pencil on white wove paper, 98 x 128 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘11 arches’ top centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘38’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CXCII 38’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner returned to Lyon in January 1820 and made a series of topographical sketches of the city seen from the banks of the River Saône. This drawing represents the view looking south (downstream) towards the Pont de la Mulatière, a bridge crossing the river near the tip of the Presqu’île (a peninsula created by the Rivers Saône and Rhône). Built during the eighteenth century, the old bridge was demolished in the late 1820s but, as Turner noted in an inscription near the top of the sheet, it was comprised of ‘11 arches’. Related vistas can be seen on folios 39 verso and 40 verso (D16716 and D16718; Turner Bequest CXCII 38a and 39a).
For further sketches of Lyon see folio 37 verso (D16712; Turner Bequest CXCII 36a).

Nicola Moorby
April 2013

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Lyon from the River Saône, with the Pont de la Mulatière 1820 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2013, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-lyon-from-the-river-saone-with-the-pont-de-la-mulatiere-r1142615, accessed 25 April 2024.