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

As he concluded his two-day boat journey from Lyon to Avignon, Turner passed the town of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon on the right bank of the Rhône, a location confirmed by his inscription ‘Villa Nuvo’ in the bottom-right corner. Looking north, with the sketchbook turned horizontally, he depicted in the lower half of the page the medieval fortress of Fort Saint-André, detailing its crenellated ramparts and two circular gatehouse towers. In the foreground are trees and two fellow spectators admiring the view. Villeneuve-lès-Avignon also appears on folios 39 verso and 42 verso (D21065, D21071; Turner Bequest CCXXX 38a and 41a).

The isolated tower to the right of the upper sketch, known as Philippe le Bel, was completed in 1302 and originally formed part of a more extensive fortified complex. It once marked the terminus of the medieval Saint-Bénézet Bridge, the famous Pont d’Avignon. The fortifications were largely demolished in 1822 after the buildings fell into disrepair, by which point much of the Saint-Bénézet Bridge had also collapsed due to severe flooding in the seventeenth century.1 At the time of Turner’s arrival in the city in 1828, only four of its original twenty-two arches remained intact, as remains the case today. Here, looking south-west, Turner made rapid studies of these two partially destroyed landmarks.

Fort Saint-André and the Philippe le Bel tower also appear in a watercolour and gouache study by Turner (Tate D28958; Turner Bequest CCXCII 11). Finberg’s 1909 Inventory of the Bequest initially misattributed this work to the artist’s Meuse-Moselle-Rhine tour of around 1834.2 More recently, the geographer and Turner researcher Roland Courtot has associated it with Turner’s 1828 visit to Avignon, making it contemporaneous with the present sketchbook.3