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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Northern France 1832 > Seine and Paris Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Hills ?around the Abbaye de Graville, Normandy 1832

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Hills ?around the Abbaye de Graville, Normandy’ 1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 87 Recto:
Hills ?around the Abbaye de Graville, Normandy 1832
D24053
Turner Bequest CCLIV 87
Pencil on white wove paper, 174 x 117 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘86’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ink ‘CCLIV – 87’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled this page with a drawing of hills punctuated by buildings, including a Gothic spire towards the bottom right-hand corner. The neighbouring pages of the volume are taken up with views of Le Havre, suggesting a location for these sketches in the uplands behind that harbour, perhaps close to the Abbey Church of Sainte-Honorine at Graville. For a comparison, see the engraving of the abbey after Turner’s design in the 1834 volume of Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France); see Tate impression T04700.

John Chu
July 2014

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Hills ?around the Abbaye de Graville, Normandy 1832 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-hills-around-the-abbaye-de-graville-normandy-r1173458, accessed 22 July 2025.