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 > Loose Studies of Northern France > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner St-Florent-le-Vieil, Northern France c.1826-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘St-Florent-le-Vieil, Northern France’ c.1826-8
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
St-Florent-le-Vieil, Northern France c.1826–8
D24574
Turner Bequest CCLIX 9
Watercolour and gouache on blue paper, 144 x 193 mm
Blind stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLIX 9’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This spare, much-admired evocation of the abbey of St-Florent-le-Vieil is one of several colour studies of landmarks of the River Loire which Turner worked up from his 1826 tour of Northern France. It is based on sketches he took of the site in the Nantes, Angers and Saumur sketchbook; see entry for Tate D23185 and D23186 (Turner Bequest CCXLVIII 18, 19).1
1
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Loire, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, p.221 no.71.
Technical Notes:
The sheet belongs to a batch of lightweight blue paper used by Turner made by George Steart of Bally, Ellen and Steart at De Montault Mill, Coombe Down, Bath.1
1
Ibid. p.238.
Verso:
Inscribed in pencil with the note ‘99’ in the centre of the page.

John Chu
March 2016

How to cite

John Chu, ‘St-Florent-le-Vieil, Northern France c.1826–8 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2016, 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-st-florent-le-vieil-northern-france-r1185507, accessed 25 April 2024.