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 Place Graslin and Grand Théâtre, Nantes c.1826-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Place Graslin and Grand Théâtre, Nantes’ c.1826-8
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Place Graslin and Grand Théâtre, Nantes c.1826–8
D24579
Turner Bequest CCLIX 14
Watercolour, gouache and ink on faded blue paper, 144 x 192 mm
Blind stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLIX 14’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This view of the Place Graslin dominated by the columned Grand Théâtre is one of several depictions of Nantes in gouache and watercolour on blue paper which Turner worked up after his 1826 visit to the city.1 The work is related to pencil sketches in the Morlaise to Nantes and Nantes, Angers and Saumur sketchbooks; see entry for Tate D23089, D23121 (Turner Bequest CCXLVII 48, 68a), D23151, D23154 and D23156 (Turner Bequest CCXLVIII 1, 2a, 3a).2 However the pencil sketch over which this colour study is built up may have been taken on the spot. See the Introduction to this section for a list of comparable studies of the city.
1
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Loire, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, p.238.
2
Ibid. p.219.
Technical Notes:
The sheet belongs to a batch of lightweight blue paper used by Turner made by George Steart of Bally, Ellen and Steart at De Montault Mill, Coombe Down, Bath.1
1
Ibid. p.238.
Verso:
Inscribed in pencil with the notes ‘16’ in the centre of the sheet and ‘clix [sic] . 14’ bottom right. Stamped in black with the Turner Bequest monogram and with ‘CCLIX – 14’ in the bottom left of the sheet.

John Chu
March 2016

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Place Graslin and Grand Théâtre, Nantes c.1826–8 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-place-graslin-and-grand-theatre-nantes-r1185509, accessed 24 September 2024.