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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > First Italian Tour 1819-20 > Paris, France, Savoy 2 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Cathedral of Saint Jean-Baptiste, Lyon, from the Fourvière Hill 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Cathedral of Saint Jean-Baptiste, Lyon, from the Fourvière Hill’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 52 Recto:
Cathedral of Saint Jean-Baptiste, Lyon, from the Fourvière Hill 1819
D14072
Turner Bequest CLXXIII 52
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 185 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Road’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXIII 52’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner made a small number of sketches in Lyon, the capital of the Rhône-Alpes region of France. The subject of this study is the Cathedral of Saint Jean-Baptiste (St John the Baptist) seen from the heights of the Fourvière Hill to the west of the city. This viewpoint faces the front elevation of the cathedral with its rose window and astronomical clock on the left-hand side of the façade. Also shown are the flying buttresses supporting the sides of the building and the two towers at the eastern end, whilst visible in the distance to the left is the clocher (clock tower) of the Hôpital de la Charité.
For further sketches of Lyon see folio 51 (D14071).

Nicola Moorby
March 2013

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Cathedral of Saint Jean-Baptiste, Lyon, from the Fourvière Hill 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2013, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-cathedral-of-saint-jean-baptiste-lyon-from-the-fourviere-r1142930, accessed 23 September 2024.