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

Turner worked gouache and watercolour paints onto this sheet of blue paper to depict the hilly banks of the Seine near Jumièges and Duclair in Normandy. A small white river-going vessel and a tall masted ship with furled sails are featured on the right-hand side of the scene. Particular attention has been paid creating a contrast between the dark waters of the river and the lighter tones of the surrounding uplands, accented throughout with white paint. Sketches of this stretch of the Seine recur frequently in the Seine and Paris sketchbook of a similar date and presumably contributed to the conception of this colour study. For lists of these sketchbook drawings, see the entry for Tate D24015 (Turner Bequest CCLIV 68). For the finished watercolour of this terrain which Turner worked up with a view to engraved reproduction around this time, see Tate D24671 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 106). All this activity culminated in an illustration for the 1834 volume of Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France); see Tate impression T05603.

Technical notes:

The verso of this sheet is attached to the mount.