Joseph Mallord William Turner

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled the centre of this page with a distant view of Tours from a western vantage. Tate curator Ian Warrell has suggested that the figures in the bottom left-hand corner of the page may depict nuns from the Convent of the Soeurs de la Presentation to the west of the city.1 This is one of a substantial number of sketches of Tours in this volume, a list of which is provided in the sketchbook introduction. Turner subsequently used these drawings as the basis for multiple colour studies and finished watercolours on blue paper with a view to engraved reproduction. These culminated in four printed illustrations for Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France);2 see Tate impressions T04685–T04688.