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, Lillebonne ?1829

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Roman Amphitheatre, Lillebonne’ ?1829
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 43 Recto:
The Roman Amphitheatre, Lillebonne ?1829
D23782
Turner Bequest CCLIII 43
Pencil on pale cream laid paper, 107 x 156 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘43’ bottom left descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLIII – 43’ bottom left descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The page contains a sketch, drawn horizontally, of rocky ground and a semi-circular structure at right, identifiable from its shape and previous sketches in the sketchbook as the remains of Lillebonne Roman amphitheatre (for further information see under folio 34 recto; D23764). Finberg noted the subject simply as ‘Distant hills’,1 but the location of Lillebonne has been confirmed.2 The sketch is rough and simple but Turner conveys the general shapes of the amphitheatre at right and its jagged eroded bricks at left.

Caroline South
May 2017

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.769.
2
?Ian Warrell, ‘Turner on the Seine: Topographical Index’, c.1999, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain (printout in copy of Ian Warrell, Turner on the Seine, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1999), p.3.

How to cite

Caroline South, ‘The Roman Amphitheatre, 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-lillebonne-r1195688, accessed 19 April 2024.