Joseph Mallord William Turner

Inverted in relation to the sketchbook as foliated, these two views of rocky riverside terrain extend across the entire length of this page. The ruins of the medieval castle at Tancarville, perched on a rocky platform overlooking the Seine, form the focal point of the bottom sketch. The top sketch presumably depicts a view somewhere nearby in the river’s wide embouchure. For examples of Turner’s watercolours of Tancarville which he worked up with a view to engraved reproduction around this time, see Tate D24693 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 128) and D24695 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 130). 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 T05597, T05598.