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 > Loose Studies of Northern France > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Buildings among Steep Hills, ?Île de France c.1826

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Buildings among Steep Hills, ?Île de France’ c.1826
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Buildings among Steep Hills, ?Île de France c.1826
D20488
Turner Bequest CCXXIV 179 v
Pencil on blue paper, 179 x 191 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘179’ top left, inverted, ‘180’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The date and occasion of this rapid pencil study of buildings set amidst steep hills are not known. However, the verso of the sheet bears another sketch depicting the River Seine at Saint-Cloud, which Turner specialist Ian Warrell has suggested records an otherwise undocumented expedition from nearby Paris during the 1826 tour; see entry for Tate D20487 (Turner Bequest CCXXIV 179).1 See the Introduction to this section for a list of comparable studies of this site.
1
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Seine, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1999, p.28.
Technical Notes:
The sheet bears a horizontal crease across the middle where it has been folded in two. The sketch appears above the crease.
Verso:
See entry for Tate D20487 (Turner Bequest CCXXIV 179) and D20489 (Turner Bequest CCXXIV 180).

John Chu
March 2016

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Buildings among Steep Hills, ?Île de France c.1826 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2016, 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-buildings-among-steep-hills-le-de-france-r1185485, accessed 24 April 2024.