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

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled this page with small riverside landscapes and views of the Château de la Mailleraye which is located on the banks of the Seine just downstream of Jumièges. In the drawing at the centre of the page particular attention has been paid to the seventeenth-century edifice’s fine roofs and corner pavilions. Directly below the sequence of the window courses has been enumerated with a note reading ‘2 7 2’. Turner’s interest in this subject 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.

The Château de la Mailleraie recurs on several pages in this section of the sketchbook; see 72 recto (D24023; Turner Bequest CCLIX 72) and 72 verso (D24024; Turner Bequest CCLIX 72a).