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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Mont Saint-Michel, Normandy 1826

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 26 Recto:
Mont Saint-Michel, Normandy 1826
D23383
Turner Bequest CCL 26
Pencil on white laid paper, 91 x 131 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘L[...]’ centre, inverted
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘26’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCL – 26’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled this page with various studies of figures, buildings, and landscapes. At the centre of this page is a view of the island-settlement of Mont Saint-Michel off the coast of Normandy. This site is featured on multiple pages in this volume, a list of which is included in the sketchbook introduction. These were subsequently used as the basis for colour studies as Turner worked towards an engraved series of Channel Coast views: see Tate D25342 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 220), D25379 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 256).1

John Chu
May 2015

1
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Loire, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, pp.158–71.

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Mont Saint-Michel, Normandy 1826 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 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-mont-saint-michel-normandy-r1185224, accessed 10 May 2024.