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

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled the top half of this page with a study of the Château de la Mailleraye and its environs which is located on the banks of the Seine just downstream of Jumièges. The chateau on the right-hand side of the page is rendered generic by cursory handling although the distinctive seigniorial chapel at the very centre of the scene, with its short, needle-like spire, gives away the location. A second, much lighter sketch of hills is also included in the bottom right-hand corner. A list of pages in the sketchbook featuring views of the Château de la Mailleraie is provided in the entry for folio 73 recto (D24025; Turner Bequest CCLIV 73). Turner’s interest in the Château de la Mailleraye culminated in an engraving in 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 T05608.