Joseph Mallord William Turner

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled this page with a view of the castle of Saumur on the banks of the River Loire with the city beneath. The steeple of the Church of St-Pierre is shown on the right-hand edge of the page. The Île d’Offard has been identified as the spot from which Turner made this drawing.1There are several pages of studies of Saumur in this volume which are listed in the sketchbook introduction. Turner subsequently worked up these sketches into colour studies on blue paper with a view to engraved reproduction. These culminated in two prints: one published in The Keepsake annual (1831) and the other in Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France);2 see Tate impressions T05107 and T04689.