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

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled this page with a view across Pontoise from the left bank of the river, located some seventeen miles north-west of Paris. Particular attention has been paid to the recession in perspective of the eleventh-century fortified bridge and the irregular alignment of picturesque buildings perched atop its stone piers and arches. The remains of the town castle rise to a greatly exaggerated height in the background. Several consecutive pages are dedicated to study of Pontoise in this part of the volume and are listed under the entry for folio 33 recto (D23945; Turner Bequest CCLIV 33).