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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Loire Barge 1826

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 5 Recto:
Loire Barge 1826
D23254
Turner Bequest CCXLIX 5
Pencil on white laid paper, 103 x 153 mm
Partial watermark of bunch of grapes
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[...]abor’ right centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘5’ bottom right, descending vertically, ‘266’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXLIX 5’ bottom left descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled the bottom of this page with a study of one of the barges distinctive to the Loire River with its mast down.1 Turner subsequently used local rivercraft to enliven his views of the river which he worked up for printed reproduction in The Keepsake annual (1831) and Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France).2 For examples, see Tate impressions T05107 and T04689.

John Chu
May 2015

1
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Loire, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, p.236.
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, ‘Loire Barge 1826 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 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-loire-barge-r1185091, accessed 16 May 2024.