Joseph Mallord William Turner

Tancarville Castle

?1829

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Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Tancarville and Lillebonne Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 107 × 156 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D23804
Turner Bequest CCLIII 54

Catalogue entry

The page contains a rough sketch, of a castle within a hilly landscape looking over to the River Seine on the right. Finberg identified it as ‘Château de Tancarville’, and compared it with the engraving mentioned below.1 The location has been confirmed.2

Art historian Andrew Wilton states 3 that this sketch was the preliminary drawing for Turner’s later watercolour, Tancarville from the East (‘Front View’), c.1832 (Tate D24693; Turner Bequest CCLIX 128),4 which was engraved for Turner’s Annual Tour – Wanderings by the Seine, 1834 (Tate impressions: T05597, T06226), although the viewpoints in sketch and watercolour appear quite different.

Art historian Ian Warrell states 5 that this sketch (and possibly folio 12 recto; D23721) was the preliminary sketch for another of Turner’s later watercolours, The Tour Coquesart at Tancarville, Normandy, c.1832 (Tate D24721; Turner Bequest CCLIX 156). (For further information on the castle, see under folio 46 recto; D23788.)

Caroline South
May 2017

Finberg 1909, II, p.770.

Wilton 1979, p.412 no.956; Warrell 1999, p.270 no.82; ?Ian Warrell, ‘Turner on the Seine: Topographical Index’, c.1999, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain (printout in copy of Warrell 1999), p.5.

Wilton 1979, p.412 under no.956.

Ibid., no.956, reproduced.

Warrell 1999, p.270 no.82.

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