Joseph Mallord William Turner

Montjean-sur-Loire; Barges, Loire Valley

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
Nantes, Angers and Saumur Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 170 × 110 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D23193
Turner Bequest CCXLVIII 22 a

Catalogue entry

Turner filled this page with distant easterly views of the settlement of Montjean-sur-Loire, perched on its three hills overlooking the River Loire. There are several pages of studies of this location in this volume which are listed in the sketchbook introduction. Turner has paid particular attention here to the sailed barges distinctive to the Loire Valley.1 He subsequently used local rivercraft to enliven his views of the river which he worked up for printed reproduction in The Keepsake annual (1831) and Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France).2 For examples, see Tate impressions T05107 and T04689.

John Chu
April 2015

1
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Loire, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, pp. 64–7
2
Luke Herrmann, Turner Prints: The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, Oxford 1990, pp. 164–6, 171–83.

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