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

This sheet is one of a series of sketches associated with a tour of the Seine with a proposed dating of 1827–9. The studies are characterised by the use of pen and ink on blue paper; for more information see the Introduction to this section. Many of the sheets feature groups of figures and capture a moment of life on the Seine; the present study, with its suggestions of relaxed activity on a summer’s day, is no exception.

The ruined fortifications seen from across the river were first identified as the twelfth century Château Gaillard in Normandy by Nicholas Alfrey in 1977. Ian Warrell later noted that if the dating of this sheet to c.1827–9 is correct, then this and a similar study (Tate D24850; Turner Bequest CCLX 14) form the key evidence of a first, and otherwise undocumented, visit by Turner to the twin villages of les Andelys. Warrell also noted that some other studies on blue paper (Tate D25065, D25093–D25095; Turner Bequest CCLXI 93, CCLXI 121–123) were probably made during Turner’s better documented visit to the area in 18321; a number studies of les Andelys appear in the Seine and Paris sketchbook (Tate D23886–D24076; Turner Bequest CCLIV 1–98a); for a full list see John Chu’s entry for Tate D23982 (Turner Bequest CCLIV 51a).

Turner followed his later visit to the twin villages with a vignette of c.1833 (Tate D24692; Turner Bequest CCLIX 127), which was engraved as part of Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine of 1833–5 (for an impression of the print see Tate T04708). The vignette’s similarity to the present study, at least in terms of the castle itself, has led to the suggestion that the earlier sheet was used during the preparation of the Annual Tour vignette.2 Turner made two further vignettes, both presenting the castle from a different angle, in c.1833 (Indianapolis Museum of Art3), and then much later, in c.1844 (private collection4).