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

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled this page with studies of Paris landmarks as seen from a high vantage to the east of the city. Especially prominent are the two shaded towers of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame at the centre of the scene and the dome of Les Invalides or the Panthéon towards the left. The Père-Lachaise Cemetery provided such a prospect and was the subject of extensive study in this volume. The many sketches Turner made here culminated in an engraved illustration for a new edition of Walter Scott’s Life of Napoleon Buonaparte (1834–6); see Tate impression T04744.

For comparisons, see the list of pages in the sketchbook featuring Père-Lachaise provided in the entry for folio 24 verso (D23928; Turner Bequest 24a).