J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Northern France c.1826-32 > Nantes, Angers and Saumur Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Barge; Saumur, Loire Valley 1826

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Barge; Saumur, Loire Valley’ 1826
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 2 Recto:
Barge; Saumur, Loire Valley 1826
D23153
Turner Bequest CCXLVIII 2
Pencil on white laid paper, 170 x 110 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCXLVIII 2’ top left, inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted in relation to the sketchbook as foliated, the drawing at the top of this page depicts one of the sailed barges distinctive to the Loire Valley.1 Turner subsequently used local rivercraft to enliven his views of the river which he worked up for printed reproduction in The Keepsake annual (1831) and Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France).2 For examples, see Tate impressions T05107 and T04689. Just below the barge is a faint sketch of a fortified edifice which has been identified as the castle of Saumur.3There are several pages of studies of Saumur in this volume which are listed in the sketchbook introduction.

John Chu
April 2015

1
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Loire, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, pp. 64–7
2
Luke Herrmann, Turner Prints: The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, Oxford 1990, pp. 164–6, 171–83.
3
Warrell, London 1997, p. 233.

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Barge; Saumur, Loire Valley 1826 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2015, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-barge-saumur-loire-valley-r1184985, accessed 25 April 2024.