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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Northern France 1832 > Seine and Paris Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Church of Saint-Gervais and Saint-Protais at Gisors, Normandy 1832

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Church of Saint-Gervais and Saint-Protais at Gisors, Normandy’ 1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 39 Recto:
Church of Saint-Gervais and Saint-Protais at Gisors, Normandy 1832
D23957
Turner Bequest CCLIV 39
Pencil on white wove paper, 174 x 117 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘39’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLIV – 39’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled this page with a view taken within the town of Gisors, located some twenty-five miles east of the Seine as it flows past Les Andelys. The left-hand side of the page is dominated by the Gothic and Renaissance Church of Saint-Gervais and Saint-Protais, with its grand tower rising to the top left-hand corner of the page and its unusually bulky east end running the length of the street. The strong perspective is terminated by the medieval castle’s Tour du Prisonnier, a short distance north of this spot.
Gisors and its ancient architecture are the subject of particular study in this sketchbook. For a list of associated sketches in the volume, see the entry for folio 41 verso (D23962; Turner Bequest CCLIV 41a). For a slightly later watercolour study of the town’s landmarks in the Turner Bequest, see Tate D20265 (Turner Bequest CCXXII F).

John Chu
July 2014

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Church of Saint-Gervais and Saint-Protais at Gisors, Normandy 1832 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-church-of-saint-gervais-and-saint-protais-at-gisors-normandy-r1173362, accessed 19 April 2024.