Joseph Mallord William Turner

At least some of these sketches are likely to have been made at Rouen; unfortunately Turner’s inscription at the top of the page (‘St. Vallery. S. Cx’) has not proved helpful. At the top is a sketch of cliffs at a harbour. The gateway depicted in the second sketch is the same structure depicted on a quayside on folio 9 verso (Tate D24517; Turner Bequest CCLVIII 9a). The third sketch of boats in a harbour with figures working and ‘Dogs foraging’ on the quayside may be at Rouen. Ian Warrell has suggested that the distant hills may be those of Canteleu to the west of the city.1 The sketch at the bottom was drawn with the sketchbook inverted. It depicts a quayside with waggons and construction machinery including a crane. Ian Warrell has noted in connection to this sketch that the English artist Richard Parkes Bonington (1802–1828), who worked in France, sketched pile drivers at Rouen.2