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 > Loire, Tours, Orleans and Paris ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Tours, Loire Valley 1826

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Tours, Loire Valley’ 1826
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 2 Verso:
Tours, Loire Valley
D23249
Turner Bequest CCXLIX 2a
Pencil on white laid paper, 103 x 153 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘6’ centre
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled the centre of this page with a distant view of Tours. This views was gained from the high ground at Saint-Cyr to the west of the city.1 This is one of a substantial number of sketches of Tours in this volume, a list of which is provided in the sketchbook introduction. Turner subsequently used these drawings as the basis for multiple colour studies and finished watercolours on blue paper with a view to engraved reproduction. These culminated in four printed illustrations for Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France);2 see Tate impressions T04685–T04688.
1
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Loire, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, p. 236.
2
Luke Herrmann, Turner Prints: The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, Oxford 1990, pp.171–83.

How to cite

‘Tours, Loire Valley by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, 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-tours-loire-valley-r1185086, accessed 23 November 2024.