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 St-Germain-en-Laye ?1827-9

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘St-Germain-en-Laye’ ?1827-9
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
St-Germain-en-Laye ?1827–9
D24904
Turner Bequest CCLX 68
Pencil and pen and ink on blue paper, 98 x 283 mm
Stamped in black CCLX 68’ 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.
Saint-Germain-en-Laye, which is now on the western fringes of Paris, is the subject of a number of studies catalogued within this section (see also Tate D24875, D24893, D24895–D24896; Turner Bequest CCLX 39, 57, 59–60). This view is related to a far less detailed colour study (Tate D40520; not in Finberg) and a subsequent finished watercolour dating to c.1829–183 (Musee du Louvre, Paris1), which was engraved for the Keepsake in 1832. The view includes the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where James II had resided: the castle is seen on the other side of the river.
The study is one of a small group catalogued within this section to have been made in a panoramic format, with each sheet measuring around 9.5 by 28 cm. For other studies in this format see Tate D24893–D24896, D24899–D24900, D24905 (Turner Bequest CCLX 57–60, 63–64, 69). As Warrell has noted, while the popularity of the panoramic format during Turner’s day may at first glance make this appear unsurprising, it was format Turner rarely used; other exceptions include some of Turner’s depictions of Petworth.2 Turner possessed a copy of Thomas Girtin’s Twenty Views of Paris, and it seems very possible that the panoramic format Seine studies took some heed of them.3
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.424 no.1045, pl.204.
2
Warrell 1999, p.33.
3
Ibid, p.34.
Verso:
The sheet has been laid down on heavy paper and it was not possible to examine the verso at the time of cataloguing.

Elizabeth Jacklin
October 2018

How to cite

Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘St-Germain-en-Laye ?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-st-germain-en-laye-r1195887, accessed 09 May 2024.