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 Riverside Buildings, ?Île-de-France 1832

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Riverside Buildings, ?Île-de-France’ 1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 120 Recto:
Riverside Buildings, ?Île-de-France 1832
D24403
Turner Bequest CCLVII 120
Pencil on white laid paper, 175 x 127 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘120’ bottom right and ‘2’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLVII 120’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled this page with a sketch of a riverside view. An awning, an archway, and potted plants on the left-hand side of the page suggest a private terrace while, on the right-hand side of the scene, a long bridge with multiple arches stretches across a river. Although the handling here is too cursory to suggest a definitive location, Turner made multiple sketches of bridges similar to this at Saint-Cloud and Sèvres to the west of Paris in this volume.1 A list of these is provided in the sketchbook Introduction for comparison.

John Chu
January 2015

1
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Seine, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1999, pp.55, 223–28.

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Riverside Buildings, ?Île-de-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-riverside-buildings-le-de-france-r1175431, accessed 21 August 2025.