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

This sparse sketch, executed with the page turned horizontally, has been tentatively identified as a view of the castle and city of Nice, looking east along the coastline towards the town of La Turbie.1 There appear to be some boats visible on the right-hand side.

A prominent city on France’s Mediterranean coastline, Nice is situated at the foot of the French Alps. The city was part of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia at the time of Turner’s visit and marks the approximate half-way point of the journey described in this sketchbook, which begins in Toulon and ends in Genoa (for a detailed overview of Turner’s itinerary, see the Introduction). There are many drawings of Nice in this sketchbook (see, for example, folios 5 verso, 48 verso and 62 verso; D21280, D21355, D21383), including an extensive, discrete sequence of views recorded on pages towards the end of the foliation (see folios 54 verso–59 verso; D21367–D21377).