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

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled this page with studies of the ancient architecture at Gisors, located some twenty-five miles east of the Seine as it flows past Les Andelys. At the extreme left-hand edge of the page can be glimpsed the base of the castle’s donjon on the high mound above the town while the Tour du Prisonnier, connected by a rampart to the Tour du Gouverneur, occupies the central passage. Towards the top right-hand corner is a description of the Renaissance tower of the nearby Church of Saint-Gervais and Saint-Protais, seen from a raking angle along its unusually wide western frontage.

Gisors and its ruined castle recur frequently in the pages of this sketchbook; see folios 37 verso to 43 verso (D23954–D23966; Turner Bequest 37a–43a), 46 recto (D23971; Turner Bequest CCLIV 46), 52 recto (D23983; Turner Bequest 52), 53 verso (D23986; Turner Bequest CCLIV 53a), 54 recto (D23987; Turner Bequest CCLIV 54), 74 verso (D24028; Turner Bequest CCLIV 74a).