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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Northern France 1832 > Seine and Paris Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Riverside Hills ?near Rouen, Normandy 1832

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Riverside Hills ?near Rouen, Normandy’ 1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 63 Recto:
Riverside Hills ?near Rouen, Normandy 1832
D24005
Turner Bequest CCLIV 63
Pencil on white wove paper, 174 x 117 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘63’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ink ‘CCLIV – 63’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled this page with an expansive but cursorily drawn vista along the hills that line the Normandy banks of the Seine. No unambiguous landmark has been included that might identify the location of the scene depicted, although the cave-like hollow in the cliff towards the right-hand side of the scene may suggest the terrain a downstream of Rouen which is punctuated by such features. For a comparison, see the watercolour of this area that Turner worked up around this time perhaps with a view to engraved reproduction; Tate D24643 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 78).
A list of pages in the sketchbook featuring views of Rouen is provided in the entry for folio 60 recto (D23999; Turner Bequest CCLIV 60).

John Chu
July 2014

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Riverside Hills ?near Rouen, Normandy 1832 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-riverside-hills-near-rouen-normandy-r1173410, accessed 19 April 2024.