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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > French Tour 1821 > Dieppe, Rouen and Paris Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Rouen, from the River Seine to the South-West 1821

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Rouen, from the River Seine to the South-West’ 1821
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 22 Verso:
Rouen, from the River Seine to the South-West 1821
D24542
Turner Bequest CCLVIII 22a
Pencil on white wove paper, 118 x 123 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Women washing’ centre right
Inscribed in brown ink ‘1209’ bottom left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This view of Rouen with the towers of the cathedral and boats in the river was made from across the Seine to the south-west. At the left are the Bridge of Boats and the outline of St Catherine’s Hill which continues slightly onto folio 11 verso (Tate D24521; Turner Bequest CCLVIII 11a). That page was originally bound opposite this one, before John Ruskin broke up the book and it was subsequently rebound in the wrong order.1 An inscription written above several figures in a small rowing boat at the right of the image might be read as ‘women washing’. At the bottom left of the sheet, drawn with the sketchbook turned to the right, is a study of three sailing boats.
For a list of Turner’s sketches of Rouen in this book, see folio 1 (Tate D24500; Turner Bequest CCLVIII 1).

Thomas Ardill
February 2013

1
Ian Warrell, Turner catalogue files, Tate, CCLVIII 22a.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Rouen, from the River Seine to the South-West 1821 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-rouen-from-the-river-seine-to-the-south-west-r1146329, accessed 26 April 2024.