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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Northern France c.1826-32 > Loose Studies of Northern France > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Cottage Interior, Northern France c.1832

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Cottage Interior, Northern France’ c.1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Cottage Interior, Northern France c.1832
D24835
Turner Bequest CCLIX 270
Gouache and watercolour on blue paper, 138 x 194 mm
Blind stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLIX 270’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The exact location of this interior scene of peasant life is unknown although the headdress of the woman coaxing the little child is characteristic of Northern France. It is closely comparable to other colour studies on blue paper Tate D24755 and D24802 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 190, 237) which Turner specialist Ian Warrell has connected it to the informal sketches which the artist made of the humble dwellings around Saumur during his tour of the Loire Valley in the autumn of 1826.1
1
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Loire, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, pp.113, 209 note 133.
Technical Notes:
The sheet was formerly attached along one edge to D40080 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 263b).1 It belongs to a batch of dense blue paper with black fibres used by Turner made by George Steart of Bally, Ellen and Steart at De Montault Mill, Coombe Down, Bath. 2
1
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Loire, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, p.218.
2
Ibid. p.238.
Verso:
Inscribed in pencil with the notes ‘37 b’ in the centre of the sheet and ‘CCLIX – 270’ in the top left-hand corner. Stamped in black with the Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCLIX 270’ in the centre of the sheet.

John Chu
March 2016

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Cottage Interior, Northern France c.1832 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-cottage-interior-northern-france-r1185559, accessed 02 February 2025.