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 Ruins of Lillebonne Roman Amphitheatre and Lillebonne Castle ?1829

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Ruins of Lillebonne Roman Amphitheatre and Lillebonne Castle’ ?1829
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 43 Verso:
Ruins of Lillebonne Roman Amphitheatre and Lillebonne Castle ?1829
D23783
Turner Bequest CCLIII 43a
Pencil on pale cream laid paper, 107 x 156 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The page contains a sketch, drawn horizontally, of ruins in a landscape. Finberg noted it simply as ‘Ruins’,1 but the location has been identified as Lillebonne.2 The rugged, semi-circular sweep which runs across the centre of the page is recognisable from its shape as the remains of the Roman amphitheatre at Lillebonne. The successive small horizontal lines towards the left correspond to layers of eroded bricks. (For further information on the amphitheatre see under folio 34 recto; D23764).
The building at top left is identifiable from its shape and position as Lillebonne castle. (For further information on the castle see under folio 29 recto; D23754.) Turner’s watercolour, Lillebonne, The Château from above the Roman Amphitheatre, c.1832 (Tate D24676; Turner Bequest CCLIX 111),3 which was engraved for Turner’s Annual Tour – Wanderings by the Seine, 1834 (Tate impression: T04703), depicts a slightly different viewpoint but gives some indication of the relative positions of castle and amphitheatre. Art historian Andrew Wilton states that the watercolour was based on sketches in this sketchbook.4
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.
3
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.413 no.959, reproduced.
4
Ibid., under no.959.
Technical notes:
There is a slight brownish stain towards the upper left of the page.

Caroline South
May 2017

How to cite

Caroline South, ‘Ruins of Lillebonne Roman Amphitheatre and Lillebonne Castle ?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-ruins-of-lillebonne-roman-amphitheatre-and-lillebonne-castle-r1195689, accessed 18 April 2024.