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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Normandy ?1829 > Tancarville and Lillebonne Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Pont-de-l'Arche ?1829

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Pont-de-l'Arche’ ?1829
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 82 Recto:
Pont-de-l’Arche ?1829
D23860
Turner Bequest CCLIII 82
Pencil on pale cream laid paper, 107 x 156 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘82’ top right ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLIII – 82’ top right ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The page contains a sketch, drawn horizontally, of a multi-arched bridge spanning a river, with a building on the right, and high hilly ground in the distance. Finberg noted it as ‘Bridge, with town and church’,1 but the location has been confirmed as Pont de l’Arche and Igoville.2 (For information on the two towns, see under folio 81 recto; D23858.)
The art historian Ian Warrell states3 that this (as well as folios 81 recto and verso, the verso of this page, and 84 recto; D23858–D23859, D23861–D23862) was used as a preliminary sketch for Turner’s later watercolour, Pont de l’Arche, c.1833 (Tate D24677; Turner Bequest CCLIX 112),4 which was engraved for Turner’s Annual Tour – Wanderings by the Seine, 1834 (Tate impressions: T04711, T05613, T06248).
The view would correspond to a view over Pont-de-l’Arche from the vantage point of Igoville. The medieval bridge depicted was destroyed and since replaced several times.5 The building at right would correspond to that of the Church Notre-Dame-des-Arts, in Pont-de-l’Arche.

Caroline South
May 2017

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.771.
2
Warrell 1999, pp.191, 276 no.133; ?Ian Warrell, ‘Turner on the Seine: Topographical Index’, c.1999, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain (printout in copy of Warrell 1999), p.4.
3
Warrell 1999, pp.191, 276 no.133.
4
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.415 no.974, reproduced.
5
‘Sept Ponts’, www.tourisme-seine-eure.com, accessed 9 May 2017, http://www.tourisme-seine-eure.com/images/06-QUE-FAIRE/1-culture-patrimoine/B1.1-Pont-de-lArche/B.1.1-Circuit-Bilingue-PDA-page-a-page.pdf.

How to cite

Caroline South, ‘Pont-de-l’Arche ?1829 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2017, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-pont-de-larche-r1195766, accessed 04 April 2026.