Joseph Mallord William Turner

This sheet is one of a series of sketches associated with a tour of the Seine with a proposed dating of 1827–9. The studies are characterised by the use of pen and ink on blue paper; for more information see the Introduction to this section.

Turner’s approach to this vibrant study of Evreux is somewhat similar to that seen in a bustling depiction of Louviers, a town about 25 kilometres away, also catalogued within this section (Tate D24902; Turner Bequest CCLX 66). In both sheets the town’s inhabitants dominate the foreground, with a grand church seen at the end of the street dominating the background.

Evreux’s cathedral of Notre-Dame drew Turner, just as Louviers’s Gothic church had. For a depiction of the cathedral interior also catalogued in this section see D24972 (Turner Bequest CCLX 136); Turner also sketched a distant view of the town (Tate D24883; Turner Bequest CCLX 47). As the art historian Ian Warrell noted, the present study captures ‘the strength and lightness of the chancel buttresses’, and is unusual in being partly worked up in colour.1 The form of the church is highlighted by the addition of warm reddish colouring.

Verso:

The sheet has been laid down on heavy paper and it was not possible to examine the verso at the time of cataloguing.