Joseph Mallord William Turner

This sheet is one of a series of sketches associated with a tour of the Seine with a proposed dating of 1827–9. The studies are characterised by the use of pen and ink on blue paper; for more information see the Introduction to this section.

The setting for this scene is Marly on the Seine, a subject also represented by a number of other sheets in the present section (for further information and a list of other studies of see the entry for Tate D24837; Turner Bequest CCLX 1).

Warrell has noted that the subject of this drawing provides a clue to the dating of it and its grouping: the château de la Chaussée at Bougival, which had been demolished by 1831 following a destructive fire some time before 1830, can be glimpsed in the background.1 As such the drawings must date from before 1830, and a dating between 1827 and 1829 is likeliest. Like another sheet in the present section (Tate D24885; Turner Bequest CCLX 49), Warrell has termed the study ‘Watteauesque’2, pointing towards the influence of French painter Antoine Watteau (1684–1721), detectable in the arrangement of foreground figures and trees.

For a related study within the present grouping see Tate D24876 (Turner Bequest CCLX 40).

Verso:

The sheet has been laid down on heavy paper and it was not possible to examine the verso at the time of cataloguing.