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 Street Scene, Rouen, with Cathedral 1821

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Street Scene, Rouen, with Cathedral’ 1821
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 30 Verso:
Street Scene, Rouen, with Cathedral 1821
D24558
Turner Bequest CCLVIII 30a
Pencil on white wove paper, 123 x 118 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Rue Bac [?]Rags’ centre-left
Inscribed in brown ink ‘1317’ bottom right running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Ian Warrell has suggested that this sketch, drawn with the book turned to the right, depicts one of the streets to the west of Rouen Cathedral looking towards the cathedral spires that can be seen at the end of the road.1 Turner’s inscription, however, looks like it says ‘Rue Bac’, in which case this could be a view from Rue du Bac to the south of the cathedral, from which the spires are clearly visible.
For a list of Turner’s sketches of Rouen in this book, see folio 1 (Tate D24500; Turner Bequest CCLVIII 1).
1
Ian Warrell, Turner catalogue files, Tate, CCLVIII 30a.
Technical notes:
The page is badly foxed at the upper left.

Thomas Ardill
February 2013

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Street Scene, Rouen, with Cathedral 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-street-scene-rouen-with-cathedral-r1146345, accessed 19 April 2024.