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

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner used this page to describe parts of the gardens and palace at Versailles, located some twelve miles south-west of central Paris. On the right-hand side of the page is described the northern flank of the edifice’s highly ornamented garden façade. Turner made numerous sketches of the palace in the present volume, a list of which is provided in the sketchbook Introduction. The existence of so many studies suggests that Turner considered Versailles as a subject for an illustration for a new edition of Walter Scott’s Life of Napoleon Buonaparte (1834–36) although it was not included in the publication in the event.1