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

Finberg thought the subject of this ‘colour beginning’ was ‘An Italian lake’.1 However, Andrew Wilton recognised it2 as a study for an early 1830s watercolour (British Museum, London),3 engraved as Marly for the 1832 edition of the annual Keepsake (Tate impressions: T05108, T06147); see the Introduction to this section. The watercolour, and this study by association, have often been referred to as ‘Marly-sur-Seine’, although the commune is officially Marly-le-Roi, and lies on a bend of the River Seine on the western outskirts of Paris. The view is downstream northwards to where the river bends to the right at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the subject of a companion design in the 1832 Keepsake; see under D40520.

The source of the design was recognised by Wilton in a detailed drawing in pen and ink over pencil on blue paper (Tate D24894; Turner Bequest CCLX 58),4 one of a number in that mode which Warrell has placed at about ‘?1827–9’.5 Turner travelled along the Seine in 1821, 1826, 1828, 1829 and 1832.6 The 1834 Keepsake design known as The Palace of La Belle Gabrielle also shows a Marly subject, looking in the other direction; see under D25169 and D36329 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 47, CCCLXV 38).

Wilton noted that the ‘abrupt termination of the design at the left suggests that it was perhaps modelled on the watercolour and did not precede it’;7 however, he did not speculate as to the purpose of such an exercise, and there seems no reason to doubt that this sheet formed part of the exploratory process leading to the finished work. In the loose patches and strokes of colour towards the bottom right, there is already a sense of the brightly dressed figures on the shore and in boats in the finished design. The slanting shafts of sunlight through the dim foliage of the avenue on the left there are prefigured by a dark diagonal band against the golden yellow of the distance at the corresponding point here, along with parallel strokes suggesting the tree-trunks’ shadows against the low wall along the bank.

Verso:

Blank; laid down on white wove paper trimmed closely to edges; backing sheet inscribed in pencil ’27 | CCLXIII – 30’ at centre, stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram over ‘CCLXIII – 30’ bottom centre, and inscribed in pencil ‘CCLXIII. 30’ and AB260P | R’ bottom right.