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 111 Verso:
Brienne-le-Château, Northern France 1832
D24386
Turner Bequest CCLVII 111a
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 a view of Brienne-le-Château, situated around one hundred miles east of Paris. The Church of Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul, with its eighteenth-century tower, appears to the left of the scene while the grand edifice of the eighteenth-century country house dominates the brow of the hill straight ahead. Napoleon studied 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). The town along with these buildings features in 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-r1175414, accessed 20 September 2024.