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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > River Seine ?1827-9 > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Petit Andelys: The Church of St-Sauveur, with the Ruins of Château Gaillard Above ?1827-9

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Petit Andelys: The Church of St-Sauveur, with the Ruins of Château Gaillard Above’ ?1827-9
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Petit Andelys: The Church of St-Sauveur, with the Ruins of Château Gaillard Above ?1827–9
D24850
Turner Bequest CCLX 14
Pen and ink and gouache on paper, 138 x 193 mm
Stamped in black ink ‘CCLX–14’ bottom right
Blind stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram lower right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sheet is one of a series of sketches associated with a tour of the Seine with a proposed dating of 1827–9. The studies are characterised by the use of pen and ink on blue paper; for more information see the Introduction to this section.
The ruined castle seen in the background of this sheet was first identified as the twelfth century Château Gaillard in Normandy by Nicholas Alfrey in 1977. Ian Warrell later noted that if the dating of this sheet to 1827–9 is correct, then this and a similar study (Tate D24849; Turner Bequest CCLX 13) form the key evidence of a first, and otherwise undocumented, visit by Turner to the twin villages of les Andelys. Warrell also notes that some other studies on blue paper (Tate D25005, D25065, D25093– D25095; Turner Bequest CCLXI 33, CCLXI 93, CCLXI 121–123) were probably made during Turner’s better documented visit to the area in 18321; a number of studies of les Andelys appear in the Seine and Paris sketchbook (Tate D23886–D24076; Turner Bequest CCLIV 1–98a); for a full list see John Chu’s entry for Tate D23982 (Turner Bequest CCLIV 51a).
Turner followed his later visit to the twin villages with a vignette of c.1833 (Tate D24692; Turner Bequest CCLIX 127), which was engraved as part of Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine of 1833–5 (for an impression of the print see Tate T04708). Turner made two further vignettes, both presenting the castle from a different angle, in c.1833 (Indianapolis Museum of Art2), and then much later, in c.1844 (private collection3). The spire of the church of St-Sauveur dominates the scene in the present study, pointing up towards the top of Château Gaillard in the background.
1
Warrell 1999, p.196.
2
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.419 no.1006.
3
See Warrell 1999, pp.199, 280 no.178.
Verso:
This sheet has been laid down on a heavy paper and the verso could not be checked at the time of cataloguing.

Elizabeth Jacklin
October 2018

How to cite

Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘Petit Andelys: The Church of St-Sauveur, with the Ruins of Château Gaillard Above ?1827–9 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 2018, 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-petit-andelys-the-church-of-st-sauveur-with-the-ruins-of-r1195864, accessed 09 May 2024.