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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > The Second Meuse-Moselle Tour 1839 > Givet, Mézières, Verdun, Metz, Luxemburg ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Sedan with the Viaduct of Torcy 1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Sedan with the Viaduct of Torcy’ 1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 22 Recto:
?Sedan with the Viaduct of Torcy 1839
D28209
Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 22
Pencil on cream laid writing paper, 101 x 168 mm
Partial Pro Patria watermark
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘22’ bottom right
Stamped in black ink ‘CCLXXXVIII–22’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Rendered with agile line, this relatively detailed sketch of a town built into a craggy river valley is thought to depict Sedan. The viaduct of Torcy can be seen at right. For other representations of Sedan in this sketchbook see Tate D28208, D28210; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 21a, 22a. There is also a colour study of the town produced on blue paper with gouache and watercolour (Tate D24578; Turner Bequest CCLIX 13). For drawings of the town in the earlier Rivers Meuse and Moselle sketchbook of 1824 see Tate D19682–D19683; Turner Bequest CCXVI 66a–67.

Alice Rylance-Watson
May 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘?Sedan with the Viaduct of Torcy 1839 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-sedan-with-the-viaduct-of-torcy-r1150486, accessed 25 April 2024.