J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Northern France 1832 > Paris and Environs Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Buildings and a Church, Northern France 1832

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Buildings and a Church, Northern France’ 1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 162 Recto:
Buildings and a Church, Northern France 1832
D24485
Turner Bequest CCLVII 162
Pencil on white laid paper, 175 x 127 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘162’ top left and ‘2’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLVII 162’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled this page with a view of town buildings including a church with a tower in the distance. Turner travelled extensively around the satellite settlements of Paris with this sketchbook and also up the River Marne to the east of the city, so this scene was probably captured in one of the towns in those regions. The catalogue for a 1983 exhibition of Turner’s works suggested Saint-Germain-en-Laye as the location of this scene although no further explanation was given.1

John Chu
January 2015

1
John Gage, Jerrold Ziff, Nicholas Alfrey and others, J.M.W. Turner, à l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du British Council, exhibition catalogue, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris 1983, p.40 note 30.

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Buildings and a Church, Northern France 1832 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2015, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-buildings-and-a-church-northern-france-r1175513, accessed 25 April 2024.