Joseph Mallord William Turner

Barges, Loire Valley

1826

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Nantes, Angers and Saumur Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 110 × 170 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D23187
Turner Bequest CCXLVIII 19 a

Catalogue entry

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled much of this page with drawings of the sailed barges distinctive to the Loire Valley.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
April 2015

Ian Warrell, Turner on the Loire, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, pp. 64–7

Luke Herrmann, Turner Prints: The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, Oxford 1990, pp. 164–6, 171–83.

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