Joseph Mallord William Turner

Château d’Ussé; Château de Chousay, Loire Valley

1826

Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

License this image

In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Loose Studies of Northern France
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 111 × 173 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D34680
Turner Bequest CCCXLIV 244 a

Display caption

The first of Turner's Loire sketchbooks covers only his journey as far upriver as SAumur, but he did not begin his next book until he was within sight of Tours. To bridge the distance between these two places he used some loose sheets of paper in order to set down hasty impression of the chateaux he glimpsed from the window of his coach (probably one of the lumbering vehicles known as a dligence). At Langeais he was able to make a more composed study of the chateaux, but those of Usse, Cinq-Mars-le-Pile and Luynes appear as little more than suggestive outlines. Once in Tours, these loose sheets also came in useful for studies of some of the principal buildings.

Gallery label, September 2004

Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.