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 > Paris and Environs Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Château de Versailles, Île-de-France 1832

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Château de Versailles, Île-de-France’ 1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 12 Recto:
Château de Versailles, Île-de-France 1832
D24189
Turner Bequest CCLVII 12
Pencil on white laid paper, 175 x 127 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘12’ bottom right and ‘2’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLVII ‘10’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled much of this page with drawings of the façades of the Château de Versailles, located some twelve miles south-west of central Paris. The sketch along the central strip of the page depicts the north wing of the Cour de Mabre (marble courtyard) at the heart of the palace. The structure towards the top right-hand corner of the page is the apse of the Baroque royal chapel. Turner made numerous sketches of the palace in the present volume, a list of which is provided in the sketchbook Introduction. The existence of so many studies suggests that Turner considered Versailles as a subject for an illustration for a new edition of Walter Scott’s Life of Napoleon Buonaparte (1834–36) although it was not included in the publication in the event.1

John Chu
January 2015

1
W[illiam] G[eorge] Rawlinson, The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., London 1908, vol.II, pp.264–76 nos.453–92, 288–92 nos.525–39.

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Château de Versailles, Île-de-France 1832 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2015, 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-chateau-de-versailles-le-de-france-r1175217, accessed 24 April 2024.