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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > French Tour 1821 > Dieppe, Rouen and Paris Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Towers of Rouen Cathedral from the East 1821

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Towers of Rouen Cathedral from the East’ 1821
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 11 Verso:
Towers of Rouen Cathedral from the East 1821
D24521
Turner Bequest CCLVIII 11a
Pencil on white wove paper, 123 x 118 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner used the sketchbook in the portrait format in order to include the spire and southern tower (Tour de Beurre) in this view of Rouen Cathedral. The view is from the east, probably taken from the Rue des Bonnetiers, with the Archbishop’s Palace on the right. At the bottom of the page, where the sheet has been repaired, is the slight continuation of a sketch of Rouen from folio 22 verso (Tate D24542; Turner Bequest CCLVIII 22a), indicating that these two pages were originally bound next to each other in the sketchbook before John Ruskin disassembled it to display some of the pages (see the introduction to the sketchbook).
For a list of Turner’s sketches of Rouen in this book, see folio 1 (Tate D24500; Turner Bequest CCLVIII 1).

Thomas Ardill
February 2013

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Towers of Rouen Cathedral from the East 1821 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-towers-of-rouen-cathedral-from-the-east-r1146308, accessed 25 April 2024.