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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > France c.1826-41 > France: Identified or Likely Subjects ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A ?French Town, with Buildings, Rooftops and a Bridge c.1830

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A ?French Town, with Buildings, Rooftops and a Bridge’ c.1830
A ?French Town, with Buildings, Rooftops and a Bridge c.1830
D40087
Pencil on blue wove paper, 138 x 192 mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Some architectural features – including rooftops, a bridge, and the outlines of several buildings –
can be made out in this faint landscape drawing. The overall impression is of a townscape, perhaps viewed from the water. The elevated aspect of the central composition suggests the view may represent a hilly location.
Not mentioned specifically in Finberg’s 1909 Turner Bequest Inventory, this is the verso of Tate D24916 (Turner Bequest CCLX 80), which was itself listed among a sequence of drawings on blue paper, described by Finberg as ‘mostly connected with the “French Rivers” series’ (see the Introduction to this section for an overview of the details and relevance of Finberg’s classification of these works).1
Hayley Flynn
April 2024

How to cite

‘A ?French Town, with Buildings, Rooftops and a Bridge c.1830’, catalogue entry, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2024, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/a-french-town-with-buildings-rooftops-and-a-bridge-r1209219, accessed 05 May 2025.