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 Grand Trianon, Versailles 1832

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Grand Trianon, Versailles’ 1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 33 Recto:
Grand Trianon, Versailles 1832
D24230
Turner Bequest CCLVII 33
Pencil on white laid paper, 175 x 127 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘33’ bottom right and ‘2’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLVII 33’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled much of this page with a view of the large pleasure pavilion known as the Grand Trianon at the Palace of Versailles, located some twelve miles south-west of central Paris. The sketch is taken from the wide entrance courtyard leading to the edifice’s eastern façade. Turner made numerous sketches of the Versailles palace complex in the present volume, a list of which is provided in the sketchbook Introduction. The existence of so many studies suggests that Turner considered Versailles as a subject for an illustration for a new edition of Walter Scott’s Life of Napoleon Buonaparte (1834–36) although it was not included in the publication in the event.1

John Chu
January 2015

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, 288–92 nos.525–39.

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Grand Trianon, Versailles 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-grand-trianon-versailles-r1175258, accessed 03 August 2025.