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 The Château de Gisors, Normandy 1832

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Château de Gisors, Normandy’ 1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 41 Recto:
The Château de Gisors, Normandy 1832
D23961
Turner Bequest CCLIV 41
Pencil on white wove paper, 174 x 117 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘41’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLIV – 41’ 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 south-easterly view across the ruined castle at Gisors, located some twenty-five miles east of the Seine as it flows past Les Andelys. The centre of the scene is dominated by a drawing of the tall donjon on its steep mound, with special attention paid to the impressive buttresses that scale the structure’s full height. Just to the right of this feature, glimpsed above trees, is the top of the Tour du Prisonnier.
Gisors and its ruined stronghold were 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, ‘The Château de 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-the-chateau-de-gisors-normandy-r1173366, accessed 25 April 2024.