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

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled much of this page with studies of Gothic architectural ornamentation. Although the sketch too cursory in handling to suggest a definitive location for this scene, the combination of flying buttress, rose window, and steeply pitched porch accord with the southern portal of the cathedral at Chalons-sur-Marne, situated approximated one hundred miles east of Paris.