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

With the sketchbook turned vertically, Turner recorded on this page a view of the Church of Notre-Dame at Caudebec-en-Caux rising above a nearby street. ¹ Two rows of tightly packed, irregular buildings with dormer windows lead straight to the curved east end of the church. In the foreground, a horse pulls a wagon down the street. 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.