Joseph Mallord William Turner

Coutances; Mont Saint-Michel, Normandy

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
Cherbourg, Coutances and Mont St Michel Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 91 × 131 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D23387
Turner Bequest CCL 28

Catalogue entry

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled the upper half of this page with studies of Coutances in Normandy, including its crumbling medieval aqueduct. Inverted in relation to the sketches above, the bottom of the page features the island-settlement of Mont Saint-Michel. Multiple pages in this volume feature sketches of these locations, a list of which is included in the sketchbook introduction. These were subsequently used as the basis for colour studies as Turner worked towards an engraved series of Channel Coast views: see Tate D25342 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 220), D25379 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 256).1

John Chu
May 2015

1
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Loire, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, pp.158–71.

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