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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Old Bridge at Poissy ?1829

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 91 Recto:
The Old Bridge at Poissy ?1829
D23878
Turner Bequest CCLIII 91
Pencil on pale cream laid paper, 107 x 156 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘91’ top right ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLIII – 91’ top right ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The page contains a sketch, drawn horizontally, of a multi-arched and buttressed bridge over a river with a building on the bridge at far right. Finberg noted it simply as ‘Bridge’,1 but the location has been confirmed as the town of Poissy.2 (For further information on the town, see under folio 86 recto; D23868.) The structure corresponds to the old bridge of Poissy, which had buildings, including mills, upon it. Ruined portions of the bridge remain in the present day, after it was destroyed in the Second World War.3 Turner roughly indicates vegetation on the riverbank in the foreground and trees at far left.

Caroline South
May 2017

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.771.
2
Warrell 1999, pp.210, 262 note 178; ?Ian Warrell, ‘Turner on the Seine: Topographical Index’, c.1999, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain (printout in copy of Warrell 1999), p.4.

How to cite

Caroline South, ‘The Old Bridge at Poissy ?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-old-bridge-at-poissy-r1195784, accessed 28 March 2024.