Joseph Mallord William Turner

Melun

c.1833

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment
Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Watercolours for ‘Wanderings by the Seine, from Rouen to the Source’ (‘Turner’s Annual Tour’)
Medium
Gouache and watercolour on paper
Dimensions
Support: 140 × 191 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D24690
Turner Bequest CCLIX 125

Display caption

Turner depicts the town of Melun as it might have been seen by travellers arriving from Paris by steamer. One of these boats is moored alongside the island in the middle distance, its chimney silhouetted against the glowing morning sky. Turner claimed to prefer to study the light of dawn rather than that of sunset because he was able to contemplate an effect for longer without it diminishing. As in the case of his Loire images, many of the Seine views, including this one, have been wrongly identified in the past as evocations of sunset.

Gallery label, June 1999

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