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

Drawn inverted in relation to main sequence of subjects in the sketchbook, this sketch looks south across the Place Bossuet, Dijon, to the Church of St Jean. In this Turner sought out exactly the same view recorded by J.D. Harding in his lithograph of Dijon published in 1836 in his ‘Sketches at Home and Abroad’ and in his reminiscences of their tour, H.A.J.Munro of Novar explicitly said that at Dijon Turner was ‘anxious to find something better than Harding had found’ (see in this catalogue the Introduction: Sketchbooks used on Tour to the Alps, 1836). One might wonder whether Turner carried a copy of Harding’s lithograph with him, so exactly did he position himself at the same viewpoint. The coach to the right must have been a particularly pleasing coincidence.