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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Saumur, Loire Valley 1826

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 43 Recto:
Saumur, Loire Valley 1826
D23234
Turner Bequest CCXLVIII 43
Pencil on white laid paper, 110 x 170 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘12’ centre
Inscribed in pencil ‘CCXLVIII’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXLVIII 43’ 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 views of the city of Saumur on the banks of the River Loire. The bridge traversing the central scene has been identified as the Pont Cessart and the steepled edifice in the sketch above as the Church of St-Nicholas.1There are several pages of studies of Saumur in this volume which are listed in the sketchbook introduction. Turner subsequently worked up these sketches into colour studies on blue paper with a view to engraved reproduction. These culminated in two prints: one published in The Keepsake annual (1831) and the other in Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France);2 see Tate impressions T05107 and T04689.

John Chu
April 2015

1
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Loire, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, p. 235.
2
Luke Herrmann, Turner Prints: The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, Oxford 1990, pp. 164–6, 171–83.

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Saumur, 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-saumur-loire-valley-r1185066, accessed 28 March 2024.