Joseph Mallord William Turner

The page contains two sketches, both drawn horizontally, the lower with the page turned upside down, and both depicting coastal views. Finberg identified this page as ‘Banks of Seine’,1 and the location has been further specified as Villequier,2 a town on the river. The pointed tower and rectangular building at top right correspond to the same structures depicted from a different angle at top left on folio 55 verso opposite (D23807), showing Villequier.

Art historian Ian Warrell states3 that this page (and folio 57 recto; D23810) was used as the preliminary sketch for Turner’s later watercolour, A Steamer and Shallow Waters in the Seine, Normandy, c.1832 (Tate D24646; Turner Bequest CCLIX 81). The lower sketch depicts a sailboat on the Seine with the high cliffs of the coast behind. This sketch may be a continuation of the panorama of the one above.

Technical notes:

There is brownish discolouration on this page, the edge of the staining apparent on the left, from damage likely caused by the 1928 Tate Gallery flood (see the technical notes to the sketchbook’s Introduction).