Joseph Mallord William Turner

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled this page with sketchy descriptions of buildings including multiple bridges which were presumably taken at on the Seine at Paris. Running across the centre of the page is a suspension bridge with substantial buildings beyond. This may depict the new bridge that crossed the river at Bercy, opened in early 1832 by Louis-Philippe, King of the French. For the watercolours of the Parisian quaysides which Turner worked up with a view to engraved reproduction around this time, see Tate D24683–D24685 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 118– 20). These culminated in several engravings in the 1835 volume of Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France); see Tate impressions T05621–T05623.