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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Second Italian Tour 1828-9 > Lyons to Marseilles Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The ?Château de Seyssuel; a Watermill on the Banks of the River Rhône 1828

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The ?Château de Seyssuel; a Watermill on the Banks of the River Rhône’ 1828
Folio 4 Verso:
The ?Château de Seyssuel; a Watermill on the Banks of the River Rhône 1828
D20997
Turner Bequest CCXXX 4a
Pencil on cream lined wove paper, 145 x 111 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘[?Majieux]’ top right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The ruined castle in the upper half of this page was executed with the sketchbook turned upside down. It can be tentatively identified as the Château de Seyssuel, a twelfth-century fortified castle on the left bank of the Rhône. Turner passed this landmark shortly after departing from Lyon, as he embarked on his two-day boat journey to Avignon. Finberg’s 1909 Inventory of the Bequest interprets the inscription in the top-right corner as ‘Majieux’, in reference to Meyzieu near Lyon.1
The study beneath was likely executed first, as it offers a more distant view from upstream of the approaching castle, executed with the sketchbook held upright. The rough outline of a watermill at the bottom of the page follows the same orientation. Additional studies of Seyssuel appear on folio 5 recto opposite, and on its verso (D20998–D20999).
Citing the present work, Cecilia Powell has commented on Turner’s fondness for castles. See under folio 3 verso (D20995) for a summary of her analysis.

Hannah Kaspar
March 2024

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.705.

How to cite

Hannah Kaspar, ‘The ?Château de Seyssuel; a Watermill on the Banks of the River Rhône 1828’, catalogue entry, March 2024, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2025, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/the-chateau-de-seyssuel-a-watermill-on-the-banks-of-the-river-rhone-r1209658, accessed 17 April 2025.