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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Northern France c.1826-32 > Nantes, Angers and Saumur Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Nantes, Loire Valley 1826

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Nantes, Loire Valley’ 1826
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 7 Recto:
Nantes, Loire Valley 1826
D23163
Turner Bequest CCXLVIII 7
Pencil on white laid paper, 110 x 170 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘sun rise’ and ‘curious effect of... ?crimson | on the Ca[?thedral]’ towards top right, ‘10’ centre
Stamped in black ‘CCXLVIII 7’ 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 distant views of Nantes. The medieval castle and gothic cathedral towers number amongst the structures featured.1 A small sail boat in the bottom left-hand corner of the page suggests the city’s location on the banks of the River Loire. The sketches have been identified as preparatory studies for a slightly later colour study of this subject on blue paper in the Turner Bequest; see D24800 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 235).2

John Chu
April 2015

1
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Loire, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, p. 233.
2
Ibid., 220.

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Nantes, Loire Valley 1826 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2015, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-nantes-loire-valley-r1184995, accessed 26 April 2024.