Joseph Mallord William Turner

The Old Bridge at Poissy

?1829

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Not on display

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: D23875
Turner Bequest CCLIII 89 a

Catalogue entry

The page contains a sketch, drawn horizontally, of a multi-arched bridge over a river. Finberg noted it simply as ‘Bridge’,1 but the location has been confirmed as Poissy.2 (For further information on the town, see under folio 86 recto; D23868.) The structure corresponds to the old bridge of Poissy; ruined portions remain in the present day, after it was destroyed in the Second World War.3

The view would correspond to looking north-eastwards towards the bridge over the tip of one of the islands located in this part of the River Seine and indicated at lower centre of the sketch, possibly the Île du Grand Motteau. With a few rough lines, Turner also indicates buildings on both ends of the bridge and foliage below.

Finberg 1909, II, p.771.

Warrell 1999, pp.210, 262 note 178; and ?Ian Warrell, ‘Turner on the Seine: Topographical Index’, c.1999, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain (printout in copy of Warrell 1999), p.4.

‘Le Pont Ancien et les Berges de Seine’, www.ville-poissy.fr, accessed 27 April 2017, http://www.ville-poissy.fr/index.php/cadre-de-vie/decouvrir-poissy/sites-et-monuments/le-pont-ancien-et-les-berges-de-seine.html.

Technical notes:

There are some tiny flecks of staining and a reddish-coloured smear at the upper right edge of the page, and corresponding imprints on folio 90 recto opposite (D23876).

Caroline South
May 2017

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