Joseph Mallord William Turner

Cave Dwelling, Loire Valley

c.1828

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Loose Studies of Northern France
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 130 × 190 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D40128

Catalogue entry

This rapid pencil study of the interior of a cave dwelling, probably located near Saumur in the Loire Valley, is associated with Turner’s tour of the region in 1826. See entry for Tate D24831
(Turner Bequest CCLIX 266) for another work on blue paper and also multiple pencil studies in the Nantes, Angers and Saumur sketchbook, which are listed in the Introduction to that volume.

Technical Notes:

The sheet belongs to a batch of blue paper with red fibres used by Turner made by George Steart of Bally, Ellen and Steart at De Montault Mill, Coombe Down, Bath. Another sheet from the batch bears a watermark dated 1828. 1

Unlike work on the verso of this sheet, this study was not catalogued by A.J. Finberg in his 1909 Inventory so lacks the usual Turner Bequest number.2

Ian Warrell, Turner on the Loire, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, p.238.

A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909.

Verso:

See entry for Tate D40128 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 145 verso).

John Chu
March 2016

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