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

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled much of this page with an oblique view of the bridge at Pontoise, located some seventeen miles north-west of Paris en route from Gisors. Particular attention has been paid to the recession in perspective of the eleventh-century fortified bridge and the irregular alignment of picturesque buildings perched atop its stone piers and arches. Apparently desiring to record the particular atmosphere of the scene, Turner made sure to indicate that the sketch was taken in the evening by an inscription ‘Eve’ towards the bottom left-hand corner of the page. Several consecutive pages are dedicated to study of Pontoise in this part of the volume and are listed under the entry for folio 33 recto (D23945; Turner Bequest CCLIV 33).