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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > French Tour 1821 > Dieppe, Rouen and Paris Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Rouen with the River Seine from the West near Canteleu 1821

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Rouen with the River Seine from the West near Canteleu’ 1821
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 31 Recto:
Rouen with the River Seine from the West near Canteleu 1821
D24559
Turner Bequest CCLVIII 31
Pencil on white wove paper, 118 x 123 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCLVIII – 31’ top left inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the sketchbook inverted, this view of the city of Rouen from across the Seine was made from near Canteleu to the west.1 The distinctive profiles of the towers of Rouen Cathedral and St Ouen Church to the right are drawn in silhouette, suggesting that the sketch may have been made as the sun was rising from behind the hills to the east. At the left foreground, standing on the river bank, are a group of perhaps three figures.
For a list of Turner’s sketches of Rouen in this book, see folio 1 (Tate D24500; Turner Bequest CCLVIII 1).

Thomas Ardill
February 2013

1
Ian Warrell, Turner catalogue files, Tate, CCLVIII 31.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Rouen with the River Seine from the West near Canteleu 1821 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-rouen-with-the-river-seine-from-the-west-near-canteleu-r1146346, accessed 11 February 2025.