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 Melun, Île-de-France 1832

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Melun, Île-de-France’ 1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 169 Recto:
Melun, Île-de-France 1832
D24498
Turner Bequest CCLVII 169
Pencil on white laid paper, 175 x 127 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Melun’ top centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘169’top left, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLVII 169’ top centre, 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 a cursory drawing of the town of Melun, located some twenty-eight miles south-east of central Paris on the banks of the Seine. A note along the top edge of the page locates the scene. Turner made several sketches of Melun in the present volume, a list of which is provided in the sketchbook Introduction. For the watercolour of the town which Turner worked up with a view to engraved reproduction around this time, see Tate D24690 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 125). This led to an illustration in the 1835 volume of Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France); see Tate impression T04725.
Technical notes:
A large section of the right-hand part of the page has been torn out and repaired.

John Chu
January 2015

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Melun, Île-de-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-melun-le-de-france-r1175526, accessed 26 April 2024.