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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Two Sketches: Tower of the Abbey of St Bertin, St Omer; Church of St Gervais, with the Arve Valley beyond 1836

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 5 Recto:
Two Sketches: Tower of the Abbey of St Bertin, St Omer; Church of St Gervais, with the Arve Valley beyond 1836
D29040
Turner Bequest CCXCIII 5
Pencil on white wove paper, 190 x 113 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘32’ to left of tower, and ‘St Girvais’ top right, running vertically
Inscribed, possibly by John Ruskin, in blue ink ‘5’ top left, running vertically, and ‘320’ top right, running vertically
Stamped in brown ‘CCXCIII 5’ top right, running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains two sketches:
i. (main sketch, drawn down the page) The tower of the Abbey of St Bertin, St Omer from the west, with, above left, a tiny detail of figures with a perhaps a boat by a pillar.
ii. (top right, squeezed into the space to the right of the tower, with the book turned horizontal) A thumbnail sketch of the church of St Gervais seen against a panorama of the Arve Valley, with the Aiguille de Varan to the right.
For the Abbey of St Bertin see D29036; Turner Bequest CCXCIII 3 in this sketchbook.

David Hill
June 2010

How to cite

David Hill, ‘Two Sketches: Tower of the Abbey of St Bertin, St Omer; Church of St Gervais, with the Arve Valley beyond 1836 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-two-sketches-tower-of-the-abbey-of-st-bertin-st-omer-church-r1144589, accessed 24 April 2024.