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 Saint-Cyr-l'École, Île-de-France 1832

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Saint-Cyr-l'École, Île-de-France’ 1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 22 Recto:
Saint-Cyr-l’École, Île-de-France 1832
D24209
Turner Bequest CCLVII 22
Pencil on white laid paper, 175 x 127 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘22’ top left and ‘2’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLVII 22’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled the bottom half of this page with a view of the environs of Saint-Cyr-l’École, located some twelve miles south-west of central Paris. When this sketch was taken, the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, founded by Napoleon in 1802, was housed in the grand building with cupolas seen here on the left-hand side of the page. A detail drawing of one of the cupolas has been inserted in a circle in this part of the page. Turner made numerous sketches of this area in the present volume, a list of which is provided in the sketchbook Introduction. The existence of these studies suggests that Turner considered Saint-Cyr-l’École 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
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.
Verso:
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John Chu
January 2015

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Saint-Cyr-l’École, 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-saint-cyr-lcole-le-de-france-r1175237, accessed 18 April 2024.