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

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled this page with a panoramic view east across the Seine valley from the plateau of Canteleu towards the riverside city of Rouen. Buildings frame the lower edge of the scene and a wide expanse of blank paper in the lower right-hand quadrant represents the river. The tall towers and pinnacles of the medieval cathedral can be seen rising up in the distance towards the right-hand side of the page. For examples of the landscape views of Rouen that Turner worked up with a view to engraved reproduction around this time, see Tate D24672 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 107), D24673 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 108), D24727 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 162), D24811 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 246). These culminated in three engravings 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 impressions T05604, T05605, T05607.

Views of Rouen recur on several pages in the sketchbook; see also folios 59 verso (D23998; Turner Bequest CCLIV 59a), 61 recto (D24001; Turner Bequest CCLIV 61), 64 verso (D24008; Turner Bequest CCLIV 64a).