Joseph Mallord William Turner

?The Gateway at Troyes, Northern France

c.1832

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Loose Studies of Paris and the Seine
Medium
Bodycolour and pen and ink on paper
Dimensions
Support: 141 × 191 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D24603
Turner Bequest CCLIX 38

Catalogue entry

Turner worked gouache and watercolour paints onto this sheet of blue paper to depict an urban scene with an arch in the foreground. The broad brush-work here renders the subject rather generic although Art historian Ian Warrell has ventured that the scene may represent the gateway at Troyes, located to the south-east of Paris on the River Seine. Certainly, Turner took an interest in this town around this time as he looked for material for the upcoming Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France).1 For the finished watercolour of this location, see Tate D24691 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 126).
1
W[illiam] G[eorge] Rawlinson, The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., London 1908, vol.II, pp.264–76 nos.453–92.
Technical notes:
The verso of the sheet is catalogued separately under the entry for Tate D40067.

John Chu
August 2014

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