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 > Loire, Tours, Orleans and Paris ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Blois, Loire Valley 1826

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Blois, Loire Valley’ 1826
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 21 Recto:
Blois, Loire Valley
D23284
Turner Bequest CCXLIX 20
Pencil on white laid paper, 103 x 153 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Water green’ top centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘20’ bottom right, descending vertically, ‘266’ bottom left, descending vertically, ‘1386’ bottom right, inverted
Inscribed in pencil ‘135’ top left, inverted
Stamped in black ‘CCXLIX 20’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled this page with studies of the buildings Blois. These have been identifies as the Church of Saint-Laumer-Saint-Nicholas, the chateau, and the cathedral.1 This is one of a substantial number of pages featuring sketches of the city and its environs, a list of which is provided in the sketchbook introduction. Turner subsequently returned to these drawings as part of a search for subjects for engraved reproduction. This culminated in two printed illustrations for Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France);2 see Tate impressions T04681, T04682.

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.171–83.

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Blois, Loire Valley 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-blois-loire-valley-r1185123, accessed 23 September 2024.