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

This view of the Place de la Haute-Vieille-Tour was probably made from the balcony of the Fierte St-Romain; a vantage point adopted a few years later by the Italian artist, Giuseppe Canella (1788–1847).1 We look across the market square towards the Porte de la Callende and the South Transept of the Cathedral. Turner used the sketch as the basis for a gouache and watercolour study on blue paper made around 1832 in connection with the Wanderings by the Seine volume of the Turner’s Annual Tour publication.2 Capturing the bustling activity of the square, Turner has inscribed ‘Veget’ at the bottom left of the sketch, presumably referring to the sale of vegetables at the market. There is another study of the Porte de la Callende on folio 9 (Tate D24516; Turner Bequest CCLVIII 9), one of a series of architectural studies of the Cathedral on folios 9–11 verso (Tate D24516–D24521; Turner Bequest CCLVIII 9–11a).

For a list of Turner’s sketches of Rouen in this book, see folio 1 (Tate D24500; Turner Bequest CCLVIII 1).