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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Northern France 1832 > Seine and Paris Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Tour de la Reine Blanche, Neaufles-Saint-Martin; The Château de Gisors, Normandy 1832

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Tour de la Reine Blanche, Neaufles-Saint-Martin; The Château de Gisors, Normandy’ 1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 40 Recto:
The Tour de la Reine Blanche, Neaufles-Saint-Martin; The Château de Gisors, Normandy 1832
D23959
Turner Bequest CCLIV 40
Pencil on white wove paper, 174 x 117 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘nufe’ bottom centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘40’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLIV – 40’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled this page with drawings taken near Gisors, located some twenty-five miles east of the Seine. The remnants of the medieval Tour de la Reine Blanche at Neaufles-Saint-Martin recur three times; from behind in the top left- and right-hand corners, and from a distance, perched on its wooded escarpment in the bottom left-hand quadrant. At the top of the page, towards the centre, can be seen the ruins of the castle at Gisors, with the tall donjon piercing the horizon line.
Gisors and its ancient architecture were the subject of particular study in this sketchbook. For a list of associated sketches in the volume, see the entry for folio 41 verso (D23962; Turner Bequest CCLIV 41a). For a slightly later watercolour study of the town’s landmarks in the Turner Bequest, see Tate D20265 (Turner Bequest CCXXII F).

John Chu
July 2014

How to cite

John Chu, ‘The Tour de la Reine Blanche, Neaufles-Saint-Martin; The Château de Gisors, Normandy 1832 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-tour-de-la-reine-blanche-neaufles-saint-martin-the-r1173364, accessed 19 September 2024.