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 Champtoceaux; Ancenis, Loire Valley 1826

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Champtoceaux; Ancenis, Loire Valley’ 1826
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 14 Recto:
Champtoceaux; Ancenis, Loire Valley 1826
D23177
Turner Bequest CCXLVIII 14
Pencil on white laid paper, 170 x 110 mm
Partial unidentified watermark
Inscribed by Turne in pencil ‘Fo[...]’ top right, ‘2 | 3’ centre, ‘Drain’ and ‘Ancenis from W’ centre, inverted
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘14’ (very faint) bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXLVIII 14’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner filled the top half of this page with sketches of the ruined castle at Champtoceaux located on the banks of the River Loire. At the top edge of the page, the remains of the old toll station are seen perched on their stone arches. In subsequent years the artist returned to his sketches of Champtoceaux with a view to finding material for engraved reproduction. This resulted in a print in Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France) mistitled Château Hamelin;1 see Tate impression T04693. Inverted in relation to the sketches above, the drawings at the bottom of the page are identified by a note by Turner as depicting the view upstream from Champtoceaux towards Ancenis. There are several pages of studies of these sites in this volume. A list of these is provided in the sketchbook introduction.

John Chu
April 2015

1
Luke Herrmann, Turner Prints: The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, Oxford 1990, pp.171–83.

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Champtoceaux; Ancenis, 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-champtoceaux-ancenis-loire-valley-r1185009, accessed 24 April 2024.