The published title for this work specifies only the two towns between which the scene lies, suggesting either that Turner was unsure of the name of the place he had depicted, or alternatively that it was of less importance than his desire to recreate a general impression of the route running along beside the Seine. However, on the back of the sheet an inscription attempts to identify the location as 'Beaupiare', presumably a mistaken recollection of the village of Bonnières. The plunging was something Turner had utilised in his of the 1820s, but for which he may here have been indebted to Hobbema's famous picture of *The Avenue, Middleharnis* (National Gallery), which was on the market in the early 1830s.
Gallery label, September 2004
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