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

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled this page with studies taken at the hillside Père-Lachaise Cemetery some two miles east of central Paris.1 Particular attention has been paid to the tombs of great military figures from the Napoleonic wars. The sarcophagus and obelisk at the centre of the page commemorate François Joseph Lefebvre, the Duke of Danzig, and General André Massena respectively. The sarcophagus on a tall plinth towards the left hand side of the page is the tomb of Vice-Admiral Denis Decrès, the inscriptions of which are noted by Turner just above the monument. The first two lines of Turner’s notes transcribe the words carved onto the left hand side of Decrès’s sarcophagus (‘Combat de Guillaume Tell | Devant Malte XXX Mars MDCC [sic]’) and refer to the his part in the siege of Malta in 1800. (The Vice-Admiral’s ship – Guillaume Tell – was named after the legendary Swiss hero.)

The next lines, imperfectly transcribed from the front of the monument, list his offices, honours, and date of decease: ‘Dis Du Decres | vice ADMIRAL | Croix de l’honneur, ancient minister of marine | D. Dec MD.CCC XXI’. In the top right-hand corner of the page is a note reading ‘combat [...]’, presumably where Turner has begun the above transcriptions and rapidly run out of space. These three tombs featured in one of Turner’s engraved illustrations for a new edition of Walter Scott’s Life of Napoleon Buonaparte (1834–6); see Tate impression T04744.

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