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 Louviers: Interior of the Church of Notre-Dame, from the North Aisle, Looking South across the Nave ?1827-9

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Louviers: Interior of the Church of Notre-Dame, from the North Aisle, Looking South across the Nave’ ?1827-9
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Louviers: Interior of the Church of Notre-Dame, from the North Aisle, Looking South across the Nave ?1827–9
D24852
Turner Bequest CCLX 16
Pen and ink, pencil and gouache on paper, 142 x 190 mm
Stamped in black ink ‘CCLX–16’ bottom right
Blind stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram bottom centre left
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 main attraction for artists visiting the church of Notre-Dame in Louviers, Normandy, was the south façade and porch, known as a key example of late Gothic Flamboyant architecture: for more information and a depiction of the south façade see Tate D24840 (Turner Bequest CCLX 4). As Ian Warrell has commented, Turner did not confine himself to the church’s exterior, also taking time to sketch the interior of the church.1 The present study appears to have been made from the north aisle during a service,2 and provides a commentary on the religious activity of the Catholic congregation from the perspective of an interested onlooker. Figures praying in a variety of poses, a statue of the Virgin and architectural elements such as the pointed Gothic arches are among the details depicted.
For another possible view of the interior of the church of Notre-Dame in Louviers see Tate D24851 (Turner Bequest CCLX 15). For further views of the church catalogued within this section see Tate D24902, D24909, D24950, D24962 and D24967 (Turner Bequest CCLX 66, 73, 114, 126, 131).
1
Warrell 1999, p.194.
2
Warrell 1999, p.194.
Verso:
This sheet has been laid down on heavy paper and the verso could not be checked at the time of cataloguing.

Elizabeth Jacklin
October 2018

How to cite

Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘Louviers: Interior of the Church of Notre-Dame, from the North Aisle, Looking South across the Nave ?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-louviers-interior-of-the-church-of-notre-dame-from-the-north-r1195866, accessed 23 November 2024.