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

Three studies fill the upper half of the page, which Turner executed with the sketchbook turned upside down. At the top is a swift study of the medieval fortress of Mornas, perched on a rocky cliff on the left bank of the Rhône. Turner encountered this landmark at a late stage of his two-day boat journey from Lyon to Avignon.

The geographer and Turner researcher Roland Courtot has identified the two sketches beneath as the medieval village of Mondragon and its ruined castle, located north-west of Mornas.1 In both studies, the artist’s viewpoint is from downstream, looked back on his route. The lower of the two sketches shows a certain degree of reworking, as Turner retraced his pencil lines to alter the topography. Further studies of Mornas appear opposite on folio 35 verso and also on 36 verso and 37 recto (D21057 and D21059–D21060; Turner Bequest CCXXX 34a, 35a and 36).

In the bottom-left corner, at a right angle to the sketches above, are the rough beginnings of another landscape study, the subject of which has not been identified.