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

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled the upper half of this page with cursorily drawn prospects. The top two views appear to depict river landscapes with trees, hills, and architectural structures. The sketch across the centres of the page is urban in character; the long buildings in the distance with repeating vertical ornamentation may depict the Place de la Concorde at Paris as seen from somewhere close to the River Seine. The cupola on the bottom edge of the page belongs to the Panthéon, also at Paris, and is a continuation of the sketch of the building on folio 10 recto opposite (D24185; Turner Bequest CCLVII 10). The note to the left of this feature transcribes the inscription over the building’s entrance and reads, ‘AUX GRANDS HOMMES LA PATRIE RECONNAISSANTE’ (‘To great men, the grateful fatherland’).