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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Normandy ?1829 > Tancarville and Lillebonne Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Roman Amphitheatre at Lillebonne ?1829

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Roman Amphitheatre at Lillebonne’ ?1829
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 35 Recto:
The Roman Amphitheatre at Lillebonne ?1829
D23766
Turner Bequest CCLIII 35
Pencil on pale cream laid paper, 107 x 156 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘35’ top right ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLIII – 35’ top right ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The page contains a sketch, drawn horizontally, showing on the right the semi-circular sweep of the remains of the Roman amphitheatre at Lillebonne. Finberg noted it simply as ‘Mountains’,1 but the location was later confirmed by art historian Ian Warrell as the Roman amphitheatre at Lillebonne.2 The view is similar to the depiction on folio 34 recto (D23764). The buildings indicated at top right would correspond to those of Lillebonne castle. (For information on the amphitheatre, see under folio 34 recto, D23764; and for the castle, under folio 29 recto; D23754.)
1
Finberg 1909, II, p.769.
2
Warrell 1999, pp.38, 39, 144 fig.116, p.146; ?Ian Warrell, ‘Turner on the Seine: Topographical Index’, c.1999, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain (printout in copy of Warrell 1999), p.3.
Technical notes:
There is a slight brownish stain towards the left edge of the page.

Caroline South
May 2017

How to cite

Caroline South, ‘The Roman Amphitheatre at Lillebonne ?1829 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2017, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-roman-amphitheatre-at-lillebonne-r1195672, accessed 23 April 2024.