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

This view, continued on folio 85 (D17658) with the sketchbook inverted, has not been identified, although it does not appear to be associated with the Edinburgh visit. Instead it may be a view on the Seine as several sketches in this book relate to views gathered during a tour of France in 1821, or on the Thames, due to the resemblance of another sketch in this book (folio 86 verso; D17661) to a view of Fulham Bridge in the Paris, Seine and Dieppe sketchbook (Tate D18528; Turner Bequest CCXI 2a).

A roadway, which recedes into the distance where an inscription marks there are ‘sheep’, appears to run alongside a river; there are several parallel vertical lines which could be masts and a disc that may be the reflection of the sun at the right of the page. In the foreground is the parapet of a bridge which recalls the composition of a Liber Studiorum work, The Watercress Gatherers (engraved by Thomas Lupton in 1819; Tate A01130). There is another bridge at the left of the present page where the drawing seems to continue onto folio 85.