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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Peasant Family, Northern France  c.1826-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Peasant Family, Northern France c.1826–8
D24593
Turner Bequest CCLIX 28
Gouache and watercolour on blue paper, 141 x 190 mm
Blind stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLIX 28’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The location of this scene of French peasant life is unknown. However Turner specialist Ian Warrell has connected it to the informal sketches which the artist made of the humble dwellings around Saumur during his tour of the Loire Valley in the autumn of 1826, noting especially its suitably rich and mellow palette.1
1
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Loire, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, pp.113, 209 note 133.
Technical Notes:
The sheet belongs to a batch of blue paper used by Turner made by George Steart of Bally, Ellen and Steart at De Montault Mill, Coombe Down, Bath.1 Other sheets in this batch bear a watermark dated 1823.
1
Ibid. p.238.
Verso:
Inscribed in pencil with the notes ‘2 b’ in the centre of the sheet, ‘CCLIX 190’ in the centre of the sheet. Stamped in black with the Turner Bequest monogram ‘CCLIX 190’ in the centre of the sheet.

John Chu
March 2016

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Peasant Family, Northern France  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-peasant-family-northern-france-r1185513, accessed 28 March 2024.