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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Pont de Bercy, Paris; ?Seine Valley, Normandy 1832

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 58 Verso:
Pont de Bercy, Paris; ?Seine Valley, Normandy 1832
D23996
Turner Bequest CCLIV 58a
Pencil on white wove paper, 174 x 117 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner drew a north-westerly view across central Paris at the top of this page. With the Seine in the foreground and the two western towers of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in the distance, the centre of the scene is occupied by the suspension bridge crossing the river at Bercy. This piece of engineering would have been new to Turner on the 1832 tour, having been opened by Louis-Philippe, King of the French, only in the February of that year. Below is a panoramic view across a riverside landscape from a high vantage with wooded hills, buildings, and perhaps figures in the bottom left-hand corner.

John Chu
July 2014

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Pont de Bercy, Paris; ?Seine Valley, Normandy 1832 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2014, 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-pont-de-bercy-parisseine-valley-normandy-r1173401, accessed 29 March 2024.