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

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled the top half of this page with a view of Caudebec-en-Caux as seen from a little upstream on the Seine. The scene is identifiable by the presence of the tall Gothic spire of Notre-Dame rising amidst rolling riverside hills. A further wide vista of the river and its valley is included on the bottom half of the page, possibly taken nearby. For the watercolours of Caudebec that Turner worked up with a view to engraved reproduction around this time, see Tate D20235 (Turner Bequest CCXXI B), D24670 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 105), D24760 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 195), and D24818 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 253). These culminated in an engraving in the 1834 volume of Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France); see Tate impression T05601.

A list of pages in the sketchbook featuring views of Caudebec-en-Caux is provided in the entry for folio 75 recto (D24029; Turner Bequest CCLIV 75).

Technical notes:

There are two light grey smudges towards the left-hand edge of the page.