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

D33680, D33682–D33684, D33691, D33736, D33757, D33955, D33977, D33985, D33999, D34026–D34027, D34055–D34067, D34070–D34073

Turner Bequest CCCXLI 5, 7–9, 15, 57, 78, 242, 262, 269, 282, 307–308, 335–346, 349–352

The formation of this group of sketches, which all show views around Lyon, has emerged from research into the newly-discovered 1838 tour of South-Eastern France and the Mediterranean Coast to Genoa (see the present author’s corresponding section in the present catalogue). At one time thought to be a product of that later tour, research suggests that these designs in fact relate to Turner’s earlier second Italian Tour, of 1828–9, when he passed through Lyon as part of the first phase of his journey into southern France. He would follow a similar route ten years later upon embarking on the 1838 trip, hence the potential allocation of these designs to either tour. The drawings are presented here as a separate addendum to the pre-existing catalogue of 1828 sheets (see Hannah Kaspar’s parallel subsection ‘The Route to Rome’ within the present tour).

Of the thirty sketches in this grouping, twenty-one have been identified by geographer and Turner researcher Roland Courtot as ‘drawn in Lyon in the summer of 1828’.1 Compiled in a blogpost published in 2018, the first time many of these designs have been identified as Lyon subjects, the works discussed by Courtot are: Tate D33682, D33736, D33757, D33977, D33985, D34027, D34055–D34067, D34070, D34071 (Turner Bequest CCCXLI 7, 57, 78, 262, 269, 308, 335–346, 349, 350).

However, the notion that some of these drawings might depict views of Lyon was first privately proposed by A.J. Finberg. Subsequent to the publication of his 1909 Inventory, he suggested, in reference to a discrete selection within the CCCXLI sequence, that they are ‘all same place. ?Lyons’.2 Finberg refers here to D34052–D34061 (CCCXLI 332–341). One of these designs is now thought to depict a scene in Rome (D34054; CCCXLI 334). The remaining nine drawings are all included in Courtot’s list of confirmed Lyon subjects, although two of these sheets were already incorporated into a different section of the present catalogue prior to the publication of Courtot’s analysis, with tentative suggestions of settings in the South of France or Italy (Tate D34052–D34053; Turner Bequest CCCXLI 332, 333).

Courtot suggests that the quantity of individual sheets dedicated to Lyon compensates for the lack of views in 1828’s corresponding, somewhat misleadingly titled, Lyons to Marseilles sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest CCXXX): ‘If there were so few drawings in the notebooks, it is simply because the painter had chosen to stock up on separate sketches’.3 In terms of the subjects and locations represented by these designs, Courtot summarises that ‘Turner walked extensively on both banks of the [River] Saône to find the viewpoints that would best capture the urban landscapes of the Lyon valley of the river: the banks to the north and south, the deep gorge that it crosses before skirting the historic city, and finally the hill of Chartreux and Croix-Rousse from where he could dominate the whole.’4 

The date of these drawings has been the subject of some debate. As outlined above, Courtot implies a direct association with the concurrent 1828 sketchbook; although in his introduction to the blogpost he does reference the 1838 visit, he appears to have discounted the later date in the subsequent analysis of the designs (the reasoning for this is not explicitly discussed or explained). In an apparent addendum to the original post, however, Courtot inadvertently endorses the earlier dating by presenting a ‘little mystery, half solved’ concerning the depiction of a ‘curious tower’ in several of the drawings showing the Croix-Rousse hill.5 The structure is present in seven of the designs in the present grouping: D33985, D34056–D34058, D34061, D34064, D34065 (CCCXLI 269, 336–338, 341, 344, 345). As Courtot explains, this structure is the Tour Pitrat. First built in 1827, the original design proved too ambitious, and the half-completed tower apparently collapsed in August 1828. The structure was rebuilt in 1829, to a more stable and modest plan. This later tower, which stood until the 1870s, does not resemble the slender structure included in Turner’s drawings, with its two, seemingly superimposed, cylinders ‘nested and tapering’ and was, according to Courtot’s research, a shorter, more conventional round tower ‘of regular diameter from bottom to top’. Although not explicitly stated by Courtot, this would eradicate the possibility of these drawings being produced in 1838, when the new tower was in place. He concludes that Turner’s sketches show the original tower under construction, just before it fell.6  

Literary scholar and Turner researcher Bernard Richards has also highlighted the discrepancy in Turner’s depictions of the Tour Pitrat. He expands on Courtot’s research, stating that the original structure was ‘intended to be a telegraph tower, but the authorities would not allow it’.7 He suggests that Turner’s drawings show the structure built in two stages, with later depictions recording just one stage. Richards points to one example showing the single stage version in the Grenoble and Lyon sketchbook, which is now thought to date from 1838, thus endorsing this thesis (see Tate D31175; Turner Bequest CCCVIII 23). Richards also references the tower’s collapse in August 1828, concluding, in line with Courtot’s reasoning, that ‘perhaps Turner’s images [on separate sheets] show it in its earlier version’.8

Taking all these observations into account, it seems reasonable to deduce that the Lyon designs compiled by Courtot were produced on the occasion of Turner’s 1828 visit to the city. That is to say, the drawings which include the Tour Pitrat can be dated with relative certainty. The remaining sketches discussed by the geographer, depicting alternative views within the city, are significantly similar in terms of style, finish and support to suggest they were executed on the same occasion. There are also several other sheets, not mentioned by Courtot, which are included in this grouping on the same basis: D33680, D33683, D33684, D33691, D33955, D33999, D34026, D34072, D34073; CCCXLI 5, 8, 9, 15, 242, 282, 307, 351, 352.