Joseph Mallord William Turner

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled centre this page with views of Tours seen from a high vantage. The prominent building in the upper drawing has been identified as the Church of Saint-Symphorien and the bridge as the Pont de Tours.1 He also identified the Tour de Guise, the Cathedral and Saint-Gatien, and the Church of Saint-Julien in the lower drawing. 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.