Views of Père-Lachaise and of Paris

The sketch at the top of this page has been identified as the cemetery of Père-Lachaise in Paris with several monuments and tombs.1 Ian Warrell has suggested that Turner may have visited the cemetery on the recommendation of John Soane who had been there two years earlier.2 Beneath are three views of Paris from nearby, each including the dome of Les Invalides (perhaps referred to in Turner’s label above the third sketch as ‘Hospit[al] Inv[alides]’). Turner has labelled objects in each of the sketches in French, though few of his inscriptions have been deciphered.

The third sketch is inscribed ‘Moulin Chermont’, referring to Buttes Chaumont, not far from Père-Lachaise, from where Turner made a sketch of a hillside with windmills and another of a view of Paris on folio 27 (Tate D24551; Turner Bequest CCLVIII 27). The sketch at the bottom of the page of a view down a street on a steep hill towards Paris with Les Invalides is also inscribed ‘Chermont’ and includes the sun’s orb with rays emanating from it labelled ‘soleil’.

For further sketches of Paris in this sketchbook, see folio 3 verso (Tate D24505; Turner Bequest CCLVIII 3a).