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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Grand Trianon, Versailles 1832

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 35 Recto:
Grand Trianon, Versailles 1832
D24234
Turner Bequest CCLVII 35
Pencil on white laid paper, 175 x 127 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘7’ and colour notes towards top right, ‘R[...]d’ towards bottom left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘35’ and ‘2’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLVII 35’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled most of this page with a drawing of the large pleasure pavilion known as the Grand Trianon at the Palace of Versailles, located some twelve miles south-west of central Paris. The building’s western facade is seen here from the bottom of the steps that lead down to the northern stretch of the Grand Canal. Turner made numerous sketches of the Versailles palace complex 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, ‘Grand Trianon, Versailles 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-grand-trianon-versailles-r1175262, accessed 28 March 2024.