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 104 Verso:
Brienne-le-Château, Northern France 1832
D24372
Turner Bequest CCLVII 104a
Pencil on white laid paper, 175 x 127 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘3 B’ and ‘3 [...]’ | [...] LR’ top right, ‘Madame Breton | [...] 18’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled most of this page with a study of the grand eighteenth-century country house at Brienne-le-Château, situated around one hundred miles east of Paris. Particular attention has been paid to the arrangement of the building’s architectural ornamentation and flanking pavilions. Napoleon studied at the military academy close by so this 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-r1175400, accessed 24 April 2024.