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

This page contains three distinct drawings, although the details are too rough and schematic to be positively identified.

The first design, executed in the top left-hand corner, with the page turned horizontally, depicts a tower on a hill, with a river to the right. The same tower may appear in a second sketch towards the bottom left-hand corner, executed with page held vertically. Finally, there is a third sketch on the right-hand side of the page, also in a vertical orientation, which appears to show buildings and a line of pillars, perhaps indicative of a ruined bridge or aqueduct, such as that in Fréjus (see folio 3 verso; D21276). However, geographer and Turner researcher Roland Courtot has tentatively suggested an alternative identification, describing the subject as a possible view of the Estérel mountains, looking towards Cannes.1