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

Ian Warrell indentifies this as one of two views of Eu in the sketchbook taken from a high hill north-east of the town;1 the other is D35437 (Turner Bequest CCCLIX 2). A relatively complex application of watercolour washes describes the town in the midst of the Bresle valley with the sea beyond. Particularly prominent amongst the visible landmarks is the bulk of the medieval collégiale, or ‘collegiate church’ of Notre-Dame and Saint-Laurent towards the centre of the sheet.2 To the left of this is the spire of the Jesuit chapel and the Château d’Eu, the summer palace of King Louis-Philippe, whose connection to Turner and to this final trip is set out in the tour Introduction. In the foreground, Turner has included a description of a carriage labouring up a steep ascent; a similar scene is worked into the Dieppe sketchbook of the same tour; see Tate D35475 (Turner Bequest CCCLX 17).

Verso:

Blank; except for patches of watercolour and various curators’ notes and endorsement marks. At the centre of the sheet, a semi-inverted ‘64’ is inscribed. At the bottom left, a pencil inscription ‘?VR’ is partly obscured by the mount. At the bottom centre, ‘ccclix.13’ is inscribed in pencil. At the bottom left, the Turner Bequest monogram is stamped in black ink above ‘CCCLIX – 13’.