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

With the sketchbook turned vertically, Turner recorded various architectural features of the Gothic church at Caudebec-en-Caux on this page.1 Most prominent is a sketch of the spire from the south-east, embellished by a smaller corner tower to the right. The flying buttresses to the left of the spire and tall arched windows to the right appear to form one continuous sketch, although these features are recorded from at least three distinct angles. Of all the Seine valley sights, Caudebec and its church were the subject of particular study in this sketchbook. For a list of associated sketches, see the entry for folio 17 recto (D23550; Turner Bequest CCLII 17). For examples of the watercolours of Caudebec that Turner worked up with a view to engraved reproduction around this time, see Tate D20235 (Turner Bequest CCXXI B), D24670 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 105), D24760 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 195), and D24818 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 253). These 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 T05601.