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 Views of Père-Lachaise and of Paris 1821

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Views of Père-Lachaise and of Paris’ 1821
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 28 Verso:
Views of Père-Lachaise and of Paris 1821
D24554
Turner Bequest CCLVIII 28a
Pencil on white wove paper, 123 x 118 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner above the second sketch: ‘R Dam’ and ‘Les L’ upper centre; above the third sketch: ‘P[...] S[...] | for J[...]’ left, ?‘Hospit Inv’ centre left, ‘V dome’ | ?‘Blue’ ‘Cal’ right; ‘Moulon Chermont’ centre right; above bottom sketch: ?‘Dandin from Chermont. Might be | made of something [...] | Solail’
Inscribed in brown ink ‘75’ bottom right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The sketch at the top of this page has been identified as the cemetery of Père-Lachaise in Paris with several monuments and tombs.1 Ian Warrell has suggested that Turner may have visited the cemetery on the recommendation of John Soane who had been there two years earlier.2 Beneath are three views of Paris from nearby, each including the dome of Les Invalides (perhaps referred to in Turner’s label above the third sketch as ‘Hospit[al] Inv[alides]’). Turner has labelled objects in each of the sketches in French, though few of his inscriptions have been deciphered.
The third sketch is inscribed ‘Moulin Chermont’, referring to Buttes Chaumont, not far from Père-Lachaise, from where Turner made a sketch of a hillside with windmills and another of a view of Paris on folio 27 (Tate D24551; Turner Bequest CCLVIII 27). The sketch at the bottom of the page of a view down a street on a steep hill towards Paris with Les Invalides is also inscribed ‘Chermont’ and includes the sun’s orb with rays emanating from it labelled ‘soleil’.
For further sketches of Paris in this sketchbook, see folio 3 verso (Tate D24505; Turner Bequest CCLVIII 3a).

Thomas Ardill
February 2013

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.788, CCLVIII 28a.
2
Warrell 1997, pp.16, 206 note 12.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Views of Père-Lachaise and of Paris 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-views-of-pere-lachaise-and-of-paris-r1146341, accessed 19 September 2024.