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 Villages, Northern France 1832

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Villages, Northern France’ 1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 115 Recto:
Villages, Northern France 1832
D24393
Turner Bequest CCLVII 115
Pencil on white laid paper, 175 x 127 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Visé Veisee’ and ‘Cren[...]t’ towards top right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘115’ top left and ‘2’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLVII 115’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled the top half of this page with wide landscapes views punctuated by architectural structures, including a needle-like spire. Semi-legible notes on the right-hand side of the page are presumably place names identifying the scenes depicted. Turner travelled extensively around the satellite settlements of Paris with this sketchbook and also up the River Marne to the east of the city, so these scenes were probably captured in one of those regions. Art historian Ian Warrell has suggested that the inscriptions towards the top right-hand corner of the page are misspellings of Vitry, situating these scenes to the settlement of Vitry-le-François in the Marne valley.1

John Chu
January 2015

1
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Seine, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1999, p.256 note 222.

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Villages, 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-villages-northern-france-r1175421, accessed 23 April 2024.