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

D33968, D33986–D33991, D33994, D33998, D34003–D34008, D34021, D34023–D34024, D34029–D34036, D34039, D34041, D34047–D34048, D34054, D34510–D34512, D36172

Turner Bequest CCCXLI 253, 270–274, 277, 281, 286–290, 302, 304, 305, 310–317, 320, 322, 328, 328v, 334, CCCXLIV 146–148, CCCLXIV 314

All thirty-five works in this ‘Route to Rome’ grouping have been dated to 1828 and associated with Turner’s second major tour of France and Italy in 1828–9 (see the overall tour Introduction), which also comprises eight sketchbooks. More specifically, the French works dominating this selection can be dated to a brief period from the outward leg of Turner’s journey (between August 1828, when he approached Paris, and early September, when he arrived in Nîmes).

The separate sheets in this selection represent three of the groupings categorised in A.J. Finberg’s 1909 Inventory of the Turner Bequest. Most of the works (thirty-one in total) derive from Finberg’s CCCXLI grouping, a large collection of 445 drawings categorised under the generic title ‘Miscellaneous: Black and White’.1 Finberg dated the works (erroneously, in the case of the present selection) to between about 1830–41.2 Three of the sheets, all of which depict the southern French city of Avignon, derive from Finberg’s CCCXLIV grouping. Comprising 458 works in total, Finberg named this collection ‘Miscellaneous: Black and White’ and again dated it to between 1830–41.3 The final work (Tate D36172; Turner Bequest, CCCLXIV 314) belongs to Finberg’s ‘Miscellaneous: Colour’ grouping, and was executed in chalk, gouache and watercolour.4 Both the medium and subject matter of this work make it something of an anomaly in the Route to Rome grouping. Whereas most of the separate sheets are pencil studies of French subjects, D36172 appears to depict Carrara and the Apuan Alps along the north-west coast of Italy.

Bridges and aqueducts dominate this grouping, demonstrating Turner’s particular interest in the ancient Roman heritage of southern France. A dozen works portray the Pont du Gard near Remoulins, a Roman aqueduct the artist encountered as he travelled westwards from Avignon to Nîmes. Clearly captivated by this ancient structure, Turner made it the subject numerous sketches: see Tate D33987–D33990, D34006–D34008, D34023–D34024, D34029, D34031, D34034 (Turner Bequest CCCXLI 271–273v, 288–290, 304–305, 310, 312, 315). He also sketched the ancient Gier aqueduct near Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon (see, for example, D34003; CCCXLI 286). Elsewhere, he sketched the eighteenth-century bridge crossing the River Seine at Mantes, north-west of Paris. Turner’s views of Nîmes focus on key landmarks, including several views of the Tour Magne, part of the ancient city walls, and the Temple of Diana, bordering the public gardens. Three panoramas of Avignon feature the medieval Palais des Papes, the Philippe le Bel tower, and the partially destroyed Saint-Bénézet Bridge.

John Ruskin, who first sorted and categorised the Turner Bequest sheets, was unimpressed by the calibre of these pencil studies. One of the sheets in this selection (D34054; CCCXLI 334) was enclosed in a parcel labelled by Ruskin with the inscription ‘Pencil on grey. Slovenly’.5

Technical notes:

The works assembled here evidence Turner’s fondness for experimenting with different types of paper, a subject on which the paper historian Peter Bower has written extensively.6 Different shades of white, cream and buff paper are used. Three of the sheets depicting Mantes and its environs originally formed part of the same folded piece of paper, but have since been separated (see Tate D33968, D33994, D34005; Turner Bequest CCCXLI 253, 277, 287).