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 Tours Cathedral c.1826-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Tours Cathedral’ c.1826-8
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Tours Cathedral c.1826–8
D24637
Turner Bequest CCLIX 72
Watercolour, gouache and ink on blue paper, 128 x 187 mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This view of the cathedral and gate to the bishop’s palace, as seen from the Place de l'Archevêché, is one of several depictions of Tours in gouache and watercolour on blue paper which Turner worked up after his 1826 tour of the Loire Valley. The work is related to a pencil sketch of the cathedral from this tour; see entry for Tate D34677 (Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 242).1 However the pencil sketch over which this colour study is built up may have been taken on the spot as no other study has survived of the gate to the bishop’s palace.2 See the Introduction to this section for a list of comparable studies of the city.
1
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Loire, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, pp.216 no. 25, 222 no.85.
2
Ibid.
Technical Notes:
The sheet belongs to a batch of dense blue paper with dark fibres 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 notes ‘12’ in the top left-hand corner of the sheet, and ‘CCLIX 72’ and ‘1b’ in the centre. Stamped in black with the Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCLIX 72’ in the centre of the sheet.

John Chu
March 2016

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Tours Cathedral 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-tours-cathedral-r1185516, accessed 25 April 2024.