Joseph Mallord William Turner Château Gaillard from the East c.1833
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
Château Gaillard from the East
c.1833
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Château Gaillard from the East c.1833
D24678
Turner Bequest CCLIX 113
Turner Bequest CCLIX 113
Gouache and watercolour on blue paper, 141 x 191 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCLIX – 113’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLIX – 113’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1904
National Gallery, London, various dates to at least 1904 (137, as ‘Château Gaillard, from the East’).
1936
[Display of Watercolours], National Gallery, London, November 1936–September 1939 (no catalogue).
1981
Turner en France: aquarelles, peintures, dessins, gravures, carnets de croquis / Turner in France: Watercolours, Paintings, Drawings, Engravings, Sketchbooks, Centre Culturel du Marais, Paris, October 1981–January 1982 (86).
1983
J.M.W. Turner, à l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du British Council, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, October 1983–January 1984 (184).
1975
Turner in the British Museum: Drawings and Watercolours, Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, London, May 1975–February 1976 (194).
1987
Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, April–October 1987 (no catalogue).
1992
Turner: The Fifth Decade: Watercolours 1830–1840, Tate Gallery, London, February–May 1992 (32).
1999
Turner on the Seine, Tate Gallery, London, June–October 1999, Pavillon des Arts, Paris, October 1999–January 2000, Musée Malraux, Le Havre, March–June (135).
References
1904
E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn eds., Library Edition: The Works of John Ruskin: Volume XIII: Turner: The Harbours of England; Catalogues and Notes, London 1904, pp.387, 613 no.137, as ‘Château Gaillard, from the East’.
1895
M.B. Huish, The Seine and the Loire, Illustrated after Drawings by J.M.W. Turner, R.A., with Introduction and Description by M.B. Huish, LLB, London 1895 [or 1890], no.23.
1903
Charles Holme ed., Robert de la Sizeranne, Walter Shaw Sparrow and others, The Genius of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., London, Paris and New York 1903, pl.95 (W35).
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.795, CCLIX 113, as ‘Château Gaillard, from the East’.
1913
W[illiam] G[eorge] Rawlinson, The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., vol.II, London 1913, p.271 under no.474.
1832
Andrew Wilton, Turner in the British Museum: Drawings and Watercolours, exhibition catalogue, Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, London 1975, p.121 no.194, as c.1832.
1977
Nicholas J. Alfrey, ‘Turner and the French Rivers’, unpublished MA Report, Courtauld Institute, University of London 1977, pp.26, 50.
1832
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.414 no.972, reproduced, as c.1832.
1981
Maurice Guillaud, Nicholas Alfrey, Andrew Wilton and others, Turner en France: aquarelles, peintures, dessins, gravures, carnets de croquis / Turner in France: Watercolours, Paintings, Drawings, Engravings, Sketchbooks, exhibition catalogue, Centre Culturel du Marais, Paris 1981, no.86, p.394, fig.698.
1983
John Gage, Jerrold Ziff, Nicholas Alfrey and others, J.M.W. Turner, à l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du British Council, exhibition catalogue, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris 1983, p.246 no.184, reproduced.
1990
Luke Herrmann, Turner Prints: The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, Oxford 1990, p.176.
1992
Anne Lyles, Turner: The Fifth Decade: Watercolours 1830–1840, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1992, p.18, reproduced in colour p.30, pp.45 under no.5, 62 no.32, reproduced.
1995
Christine Kayser, David Brown, Richard Hearn and others, Peindre le ciel: De Turner à Monet, exhibition catalogue, Musée-Promenade, Marly-le-Roi / Louvecienes 1995, p.35, fig.13.
1999
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Seine, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1999, pp.69, 70, 191, 202, 276 no.135, fig.185 (colour).
Engraved:
By J.T. Smith in 1834, published in 1835.
By J.T. Smith in 1834, published in 1835.
In this watercolour, Turner presents a particularly bold, sweeping view from high, over a looping meander of the river Seine in northern France. At centre stands the ruined medieval castle, Château Gaillard, constructed in the twelfth century by order of Richard the Lionheart, who was King of England but also, due to his Plantagenet family roots, Duke of Normandy, France.1 Light shines through the empty windows of the castle at left and picks out the edges of crumbled stonework at right. The dramatically darkened sky and vertical brushstrokes at left suggest a storm may be coming. All these elements evoke ruin, decay and the castle’s turbulent military past. As art historian Anne Lyles considers, even the panoramic landscape spread out below is a reminder of the domains the castle once commanded.2 Figures in the bottom left corner and bottom foreground contemplate the scene. The village of Les Andelys (which was the birthplace of Nicolas Poussin,3 the renowned seventeenth-century French artist) is portrayed in the lower right corner.
Verso:
Blank, except for an inscription ‘2’ in the top left corner and ‘Chateau Gilliard | and Petit Andely’ at the centre of the sheet, both written in red gouache, probably by Turner. The numeral ‘2’ has also been inscribed in pencil, in the top left corner. At the right of the sheet ‘6a’ has been noted in pencil. The lower right of the sheet is stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram above the number ‘CCLIX – 113’, which is also written in pencil above.
Caroline South
November 2017
How to cite
Caroline South, ‘Château Gaillard from the East c.1833 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2017, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2019, https://www