Joseph Mallord William Turner

With the sketchbook turned vertically, Turner devoted this page to cursory sketches of hilly terrain with tall towers. These features accord with the ruined medieval castle at Lillebonne, Normandy, close to the Normandy banks of the Seine. For comparisons, see examples of the watercolours on this subject that Turner worked up with a view to engraved reproduction around this time: Tate D24675 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 110), D24676 (Turner Bequest CCCLIX 111), and D24807 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 242). These culminated in two engravings in the 1834 volume of Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France); see Tate impressions T05599 and T05600.