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

Turner filled this page with drawings of the cliffs at Mauves on the banks of the River Loire. These were known as the Coteaux de Mauves and are located some twelve miles upstream of Nantes.1 With the sketchbook turned horizontally, he also sketched views of the nearby seventeenth-century Château de Claremont on its hilltop along the left-hand edge of the page. There are several pages of studies of these sites in this volume. A list of these is provided in the sketchbook introduction. Turner subsequently worked up these sketches into colour studies on blue paper with a view to engraved reproduction. These culminated in three prints in Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France);2 see Tate impressions T04692, T04695 and T04696.