Joseph Mallord William Turner

The page contains a sketch, drawn horizontally, of a church. Finberg noted it simply as ‘Church’,1 but the location has subsequently been identified as Lillebonne.2 Turner concentrates on the structural and decorative details around the church’s tower, elements which render the church identifiable as the sixteenth-century3 Church of Notre-Dame. The spire of the church continues onto folio 45 recto opposite (D23786). Other parts of the church buildings are indicated faintly in simple outline at left with one buttress-like structure picked out in greater detail.

Technical notes:

Brownish discolouration owing to damage likely caused by the 1928 Tate Gallery flood (see the technical notes to the sketchbook’s Introduction) is visible on the right part of the page. There is a thumbprint at the right edge of the page.