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

This page contains three distinct sketches. The uppermost vista is currently unidentified although it appears to show buildings or a bridge on a river, probably the Saône. The two remaining studies meanwhile represent views of Chalon-sur-Saône, a town on the River Saône in the Burgundy region of France.

Turner passed through Chalon en route between Auxerre and Lyon. The two sketches here record variant views of the Pont Saint Laurent, the bridge which connects the western mainland to an island in the centre of the river known as the Île St Laurent.1 The lower view depicts the northern end of the bridge whilst the upper shows the southern end with the hospital on the Saint Laurent island. Turner’s viewpoint appears to be from the river to the south-west , suggesting that he travelled between Chalon and Lyon by water. For a more detailed discussion and further sketches of Chalon see folio 19 (D14021).