Pont au Change and ?Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, Paris

1832

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Paris and Environs Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 175 x 127 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D24296
Turner Bequest CCLVII 66 a

Catalogue entry

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled this page with studies of the varied architectural structures which line the quaysides of central Paris. While the Pont au Change traverses the centre of the page, a sketch of a Gothic tower perhaps belonging to the Church of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois is included in the upper left-hand quadrant. Turner made several sketches of the riverside in the present volume, a list of which is provided in the sketchbook Introduction. For the watercolours of the city’s quaysides which Turner worked up with a view to engraved reproduction around this time, see Tate D24683–D24685 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 118–20). These culminated in several engravings in the 1835 volume of Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France); see Tate impressions T05621–T05623.

John Chu
January 2015

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