Tours, Loire Valley

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled the centre this page with a view of Tours from a high vantage. The prominent buildings have been identified, from left to right, as the Church of Saint-Julien, the Hôtel de Ville, the Tour Charlemagne, and the Tour de l’Horloge.1 This is one of a substantial number of pages featuring sketches of the city and its environs 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.