Joseph Mallord William Turner

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled the top half of this page with studies of the bridges and quaysides of central Paris. Along the top edge of the page is a sketch of the Pont d’Arcole, a newly built suspension bridge. Named after one of Napoleon’s military victories, this structure was of particular interest to the artist as he sought subjects to illustrate a new edition of Walter Scott’s Life of Napoleon Buonaparte (1834–36). There are multiple drawings of the bridge in these pages, a list of which is included in the sketchbook Introduction. These formed the basis for one of the published book’s engraved vignettes; see Tate impression T04967.