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

Inverted in relation to the sketchbook as foliated, this drawing depicts the view from the high ground to the east of Caudebec-en-Caux, Normandy with the Seine meandering into the distance. Just to the right of the centre of the page, the Gothic spire of the Church of Notre-Dame is cursorily sketched. Of all the Seine valley sights, Caudebec and its church were the subject of particular study in this sketchbook. For a list of associated sketches, see the entry for folio 17 recto (D23550; Turner Bequest CCLII 17). For examples of 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.