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 Brienne-le-Château, Northern France 1832

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Brienne-le-Château, Northern France’ 1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 93 Verso:
Brienne-le-Château, Northern France 1832
D24350
Turner Bequest CCLVII 93a
Pencil on white laid paper, 175 x 127 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled this page with two views of the riverside town of Brienne-le-Château, situated around one hundred miles east of Paris. The grand eighteenth-century country house can be seen perched on a hill to the left-hand side of each view. Napoleon studied at the military academy close by, so the site was of particular interest to the artist as he sought subjects to illustrate a new edition of Walter Scott’s Life of Napoleon Buonaparte (1834–36). This drawing contributed one of the volume’s engraved illustrations; see Tate impression T04969. A list of pages in the present volume featuring this subject is provided in the sketchbook Introduction.

John Chu
January 2015

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Brienne-le-Château, Northern 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-brienne-le-chateau-northern-france-r1175378, accessed 20 April 2024.