J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

Turner filled the upper half of this page with small cursory sketches which have been identified as depictions of the Château de Montcontour and the nearby church tower at Vouvray close to Tours.1 At the bottom of the page, inverted in relation to the drawings above, is a sketch of Blois, located some thirty-five miles further up the River Loire, as seen across the Pont Jacques-Gabriel. This is one of a substantial number of pages depicting these cities in this volume, lists of which are 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 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 T04681, T04682, T04685–T04688.