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

Turner filled this page with westerly and northerly views of the settlement of Montjean-sur-Loire, perched on its three hills overlooking the River Loire. As Tate curator Ian Warrell has pointed out, there is a small circular form hanging over the topmost sketch which probably represents the afternoon sun in the south rather than the moon.1 There are several pages of studies of this location in this volume which are listed in the sketchbook introduction. Turner subsequently worked up these sketches into colour studies on blue paper with a view to engraved reproduction. These culminated in a print published in Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France) ² wherein the ruined condition of its monastic and ecclesiastical edifices is more evident; see Tate impression T04691.