Joseph Mallord William Turner

Hôtel de Ville and Pont d’Arcole, Paris

1832

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Paris and Environs Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 175 × 127 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D24290
Turner Bequest CCLVII 63 a

Catalogue entry

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled much of this page with a sketch of the Hôtel de Ville with the newly built suspension bridge, the Pont d’Arcole, immediately before it. Named after one of Napoleon’s military victories, this structure was of particular interest to the artist as he sought subjects to illustrate a new edition of Walter Scott’s Life of Napoleon Buonaparte (1834–36). There are multiple drawings of the bridge in these pages, a list of which is included in the sketchbook Introduction. These formed the basis for one of the book’s engraved vignettes; see Tate impression T04967.

John Chu
January 2015

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