Joseph Mallord William Turner Paris: The Pont Neuf and the Ile de la Cité c.1833
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
Paris: The Pont Neuf and the Ile de la Cité
c.1833
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Paris: The Pont Neuf and the Ile de la Cité c.1833
D24683
Turner Bequest CCLIX 118
Turner Bequest CCLIX 118
Gouache and watercolour on blue paper, 143 x 188 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCLIX – 118’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLIX – 118’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1904
National Gallery, London, various dates to at least 1904 (142, as ‘Paris: The Pont Neuf’).
1938
La Peinture anglaise: XVIIIe & XIXe siècles, Louvre, Paris, February–August 1938 (244[b]).
1963
Turner Watercolors from The British Museum: A Loan Exhibition Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, September–October 1963, Museum of Fine Arts of Houston, Texas, November, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, December 1963–January 1964, Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, January–March, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, March–April, Brooklyn Museum, New York, May, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, June–July (35).
1970
Turner: Watercolours Lent by the British Museum, Musée Provisoire d’Art Moderne, Brussels, November 1970–January 1971 (56).
1978
Turner 1775–1851, Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, December 1978–February 1979 (43).
1974
Turner 1775–1851, Royal Academy, London, November 1974–March 1975 (406).
1976
J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Akvareller og Tegninger fra British Museum, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, February–May 1976 (61).
1976
William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit, Hamburger Kunsthalle, May–July 1976 (78).
1979
Oleos y acuarelas de Joseph Mallord William Turner, Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela, October[–?November] 1979 (BM 41).
1981
Turner en France: aquarelles, peintures, dessins, gravures, carnets de croquis / Turner in France: Watercolours, Paintings, Drawings, Engravings, Sketchbooks, Centre Culturel du Marais, Paris, October 1981–January 1982 (146).
1983
Turner Abroad: Watercolours from the Turner Bequest Loaned by the British Museum, Tate Gallery, London, June–December 1983 (no catalogue).
1993
The Great Age of British Watercolours, 1750–1880, Royal Academy of Arts, London, January–April 1993, National Gallery of Art, Washington, May–July (294).
1995
Peindre le ciel: De Turner à Monet, Musée-Promenade, Marly-le-Roi / Louvecienes, April–July 1995 (1).
1999
Turner on the Seine, Tate Gallery, London, June–October 1999, Pavillon des Arts, Paris, October 1999–January 2000, Musée Malraux, Le Havre, March–June (146).
2016
Turner’s Urban Landscapes, Tate Britain, London, July 2016–May 2018 (no catalogue).
References
1834
Spectator, 6 December 1834, p.1167.
1904
E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn eds., Library Edition: The Works of John Ruskin: Volume XIII: Turner: The Harbours of England; Catalogues and Notes, London 1904, pp.387, 614 no.142, as ‘Paris: The Pont Neuf’.
1903
Charles Holme ed., Robert de la Sizeranne, Walter Shaw Sparrow and others, The Genius of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., London, Paris and New York 1903, pl.84 (W24).
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.795, CCLIX 118, as ‘Paris: The Pont Neuf’.
1913
W[illiam] G[eorge] Rawlinson, The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., vol.II, London 1913, p.274 under no.486.
1913
C.E. Hughes, Early English Water-Colour, London 1913, reproduced opposite p.134.
1938
Henri Verne, Laurence Binyon and Louis Gillet, La Peinture anglaise: XVIIIe & XIXe siècles, exhibition catalogue, Louvre, Paris 1938, p.137 no.244(b).
1963
Edward Croft-Murray, Turner Watercolors from The British Museum: A Loan Exhibition Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC 1963, p.11 no.35.
1970
Luke Herrmann, Turner: Watercolours Lent by the British Museum, exhibition catalogue, Musée Provisoire d’Art Moderne, Brussels 1970, p.9 no.56.
1829
Martin Butlin, Andrew Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, p.120 no.406, as ‘Paris: The Pont Neuf and the Ile de la Cité c.1829’.
1976
David Loshak and Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Akvareller og Tegninger fra British Museum, exhibition catalogue, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen 1976, p.60 no.61.
1976
Werner Hofmann, Andrew Wilton, Siegmar Hosten and others, William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit, exhibition catalogue, Hamburger Kunsthalle 1976, p.18 no.78.
1977
Nicholas J. Alfrey, ‘Turner and the French Rivers’, unpublished MA Report, Courtauld Institute, University of London 1977, p.50.
1977
Andrew Wilton, Turner Watercolors: An Exhibition of Works Loaned by The Trustees of the British Museum, exhibition catalogue, Cleveland Museum of Art 1977, p.57 under no.38.
1978
John Sillevis, Nini Jonker and Hripsimé Visser, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague 1978, p.72 no.43.
1979
John Gage and Ana T. de Gradowska, Oleos y acuarelas de Joseph Mallord William Turner, exhibition catalogue, Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela 1979, no.BM 41.
1832
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.416 no.984, reproduced, as ‘Paris: the Pont Neuf and the Ile de la Cité c.1832’.
1981
Maurice Guillaud, Nicholas Alfrey, Andrew Wilton and others, Turner en France: aquarelles, peintures, dessins, gravures, carnets de croquis / Turner in France: Watercolours, Paintings, Drawings, Engravings, Sketchbooks, exhibition catalogue, Centre Culturel du Marais, Paris 1981, no.146, p.458, fig.916.
1982
Andrew Wilton, Turner Abroad: France; Italy; Germany; Switzerland, London 1982, p.50 no.56, pl.56 (colour).
1983
John Gage, Jerrold Ziff, Nicholas Alfrey and others, J.M.W. Turner, à l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du British Council, exhibition catalogue, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris 1983, p.247 under no.186.
1990
Luke Herrmann, Turner Prints: The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, Oxford 1990, p.178.
1992
Anne Lyles, Turner: The Fifth Decade: Watercolours 1830–1840, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1992, p.63 under no.35.
1993
Andrew Wilton and Anne Lyles, The Great Age of British Watercolours 1750–1880, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy of Arts, London 1993, p.85 no.294, pl.91 (colour).
1995
Christine Kayser, David Brown, Richard Hearn and others, Peindre le ciel: De Turner à Monet, exhibition catalogue, Musée-Promenade, Marly-le-Roi / Louvecienes 1995, p.15, fig.1.
1999
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Seine, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1999, pp.69, 80, 90, 191, 230, 235, 257 note 28, 277 no.146, fig.236 (colour).
2004
Damien Sausset and Térésa Faucon, L’ABCdaire de Turner, ABCdaires, Paris 2004, pp.82–3 reproduced.
Engraved:
By William Miller in 1834, published in 1835.
By William Miller in 1834, published in 1835.
In this watercolour, Turner presents a view over the River Seine in Paris, France. The Pont Neuf bridge spans the entire view, its arches stretching either side of the Ile de la Cité island at centre. It is considered to be the oldest bridge in Paris, begun in the sixteenth century and completed in 1607 under King Henri III, whose equestrian statue on the bridge is visible just right of centre of the image.1 The cool, clear colours suggest morning light. Turner places the viewer in the hub of the city and its activity. The bridge connects the Left and Right Banks of the Seine in the heart of Paris. The two towers of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame rise above the Ile de la Cité at centre. The foreground is a bustle of figures, boats and activity.
‘Pont Neuf’, www.en.parisinfo.com , accessed 2 November 2017, https://en.parisinfo.com/transport/73137/Pont-Neuf ; ‘Pont Neuf’, www.destination360. com, accessed 2 November 2017, http://www.destination360.com/europe/france/paris/pont-neuf.
Verso:
Previous records note inscriptions in gouache ‘17 | Pont Neufe | Paris’ and in pencil ‘14’; however, at the time of writing the watercolour was on display and the back therefore not available for examination and confirmation.
Caroline South
November 2017
How to cite
Caroline South, ‘Paris: The Pont Neuf and the Ile de la Cité c.1833 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2017, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2019, https://www