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 Bridges and Towers; ?Pont de Bercy, Paris 1832

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Bridges and Towers; ?Pont de Bercy, Paris’ 1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 64 Recto:
Bridges and Towers; ?Pont de Bercy, Paris 1832
D24007
Turner Bequest CCLIV 64
Pencil on white wove paper, 174 x 117 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘64’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ink ‘CCLIV – 64’ 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 sketchy descriptions of buildings including multiple bridges which were presumably taken at on the Seine at Paris. Running across the centre of the page is a suspension bridge with substantial buildings beyond. This may depict the new bridge that crossed the river at Bercy, opened in early 1832 by Louis-Philippe, King of the French. For the watercolours of the Parisian quaysides which Turner worked up with a view to engraved reproduction around this time, see Tate D24683–D24685 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 118– 20). These culminated in several engravings in the 1835 volume of Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France); see Tate impressions T05621–T05623.

John Chu
July 2014

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Bridges and Towers; ?Pont de Bercy, Paris 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-bridges-and-towers-pont-de-bercy-paris-r1173412, accessed 19 April 2024.