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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > South-Eastern France and Genoa 1838 > Coast of Genoa Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Views at ?Fréjus, including a Distant View of a Church through Trees, and Part of the Roman Ruins 1838

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Views at ?Fréjus, including a Distant View of a Church through Trees, and Part of the Roman Ruins’ 1838
Folio 4 Verso:
Views at ?Fréjus, including a Distant View of a Church through Trees, and Part of the Roman Ruins 1838
D21278
Turner Bequest CCXXXII 4a
Pencil on white wove paper, 98 x 157 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page features three distinct sketches, executed with the book held horizontally.
The central composition includes a cylindrical structure, with a building on the right and a cross, presumably signifying a church, on the left. Geographer and Turner researcher Roland Courtot has suggested the scene represents a view of the Roman ruins at Fréjus (see the two drawings overleaf, folios 3 verso and 4 recto; D21276–D21277), although the details are unclear.1 The designs are perhaps too rough and schematic to be conclusively identified.
1
Roland Courtot, ‘Carnet de voyage de Turner: 9. Notebook CCXXXII “Côte de Génès” (1838?)’, Hypotheses, 24 August 2018, accessed 24 June 2024, https://carnetswt.hypotheses.org/949.
Technical notes:
Yellow staining along the edges of the page is most likely the result of 1928 Tate Gallery flood (see under sketchbook introduction).

Nicola Moorby
May 2017

Revised by Hayley Flynn
June 2025

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Views at ?Fréjus, including a Distant View of a Church through Trees, and Part of the Roman Ruins 1838’, catalogue entry, May 2017, revised by Hayley Flynn, June 2025, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, July 2026, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/views-at-frejus-including-a-distant-view-of-a-church-through-trees-and-part-of-the-roman-r1213455, accessed 17 September 2026.