Joseph Mallord William Turner

Mont Saint-Michel, Normandy

c.1827–8

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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: Watercolour on paper
Dimensions: Support: 178 × 258 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D25379
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 256

Display caption

Turner travelled through Normandy and Brittany in 1826 at a time when the region was beginning to attract artists interested in the relationship of its architecture to that of England. The focal point of most tours was Mont St Michel, a casket-like architectural gem seemingly floating in the middle of the surrounding bay. Turner's watercolours of the island stress its fantastic, mirage-like qualities at the expense of giving precise details.

Gallery label, August 2004

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Catalogue entry

This is one of a batch of colour sketches of the island of Mont Saint-Michel off the coast of Normandy which Turner worked up from material gathered on his 1826 tour of Northern France. A list of the pencil studies of that landmark is provided in the Introduction to the Cherbourg, Coutances and Mont St Michel sketchbook.1

The verso, a colour study of a sweeping beach before a large rock is depicted in yellow, grey and blue watercolour (D40144).

John Chu
March 2016

Ian Warrell, Turner on the Loire, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, p.161.

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