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

These swiftly rendered jottings show the Meuse valley in northern France and the ‘Wood’ and fields of ‘Corn’ which line its slopes. Turner has made a study of soldiers and a cart at the upper register, noting that the soldiers were ‘drinking at a Spring’ near ‘Piles of Wood’. There is a diminutive squared-off landscape at bottom left, drawn inversely to the others, and labelled ‘[...]pin’. Though Turner’s writing is difficult to decipher, the inscription may read ‘Fépin’, a village close to Montigny which in turn is depicted on the opposite folio (Tate D19675; Turner Bequest CCXVI 63).