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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Loire Barges, near Nantes c.1826-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Loire Barges, near Nantes c.1826–8
D24644
Turner Bequest CCLIX 79
Watercolour, gouache and ink on blue paper, 140 x 192 mm
Blind stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram bottom left
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This study of Loire barges, known locally as chalands or gabares, caught in strong winds with Nantes in the distance is one of several depictions of the city and its environs in gouache and watercolour on blue paper which Turner worked up after his 1826 tour of Northern France. It is based on numerous pencil drawings in the Nantes, Angers and Saumur sketchbook; see entry for Tate D23158, D23166, D23181, D23182, D23183, D23184, D23187, D23192, D23193, D23194 (Turner Bequest CCXLVIII 4a, 8a, 16–17a,19a, 22–23).1 It is one of three stylistically comparable works derived from the tour; see also D24726 and D24750 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 161, 185).2
1
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Loire, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, p.220 no.64.
2
Ibid. p.219 no. 59.
Technical Notes:
The sheet belongs to a batch of lightweight blue paper used by Turner made by George Steart of Bally, Ellen and Steart at De Montault Mill, Coombe Down, Bath.1
1
Ibid. p.238.
Verso:
There is a pencil note ‘CCLIX. 79’ in the centre of the sheet and, stamped in black, the Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCLIX 79’.

John Chu
March 2016

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Loire Barges, near Nantes c.1826–8 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-loire-barges-near-nantes-r1185517, accessed 29 March 2024.