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

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled most of this page with studies of Saumur on the banks of the River Loire. The towered castle can be clearly seen at the top of the page. The crenelated structure in the upper right-hand quadrant has been identified as the Tour Papegault.1There are several pages of studies of Saumur 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 two prints: one published in The Keepsake annual (1831) and the other in Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France);2 see Tate impressions T05107 and T04689.

In the bottom right-hand corner of the page is part of a sketch of one the cave dwellings which are a particular feature of Saumurois countryside. This drawing continues onto folio 44 verso opposite (D23237; Turner Bequest CCXLVIII 44a). Several pages in this volume feature these distinctive habitations; a list of these drawings is included in the sketchbook introduction. Turner subsequently worked up a colour study of one of these caves on blue paper; see Tate D23240 (Turner Bequest CCXLVIII 46).