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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Saint-Denis, Île-de-France 1832

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 154 Recto:
Saint-Denis, Île-de-France 1832
D24469
Turner Bequest CCLVII 154
Pencil on white laid paper, 175 x 127 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘154’ top left and ‘2’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLVII 154’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled the most of with page with studies of riverside views punctuated by buildings. Running down the left-hand edge of the page is a sketch of the Basilique Saint-Denis as seen from the River Seine, located some five miles north of central Paris. This volume includes several studies of this edifice, a list of which is included in the sketchbook Introduction. For the watercolour of the subject which Turner worked up with a view to engraved reproduction around this time, see Tate D24686 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 121). This led to an illustration in the 1835 volume of Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France); see Tate impression T04715.

John Chu
January 2015

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Saint-Denis, Île-de-France 1832 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2015, 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-saint-denis-le-de-france-r1175497, accessed 19 September 2024.