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

This view from a hill was identified in the Turner in France exhibition catalogue as ‘Côte à Dieppe’,1 though Ian Warrell has subsequently identified it as a view of Paris from Saint-Cloud above the Seine.2 The island at the bend of the river suggests that this sketch was taken from just south of the town. A multi-arched bridge can be seen at the left of the image (compare to folio 16 verso; Tate D24531; Turner Bequest CCLVIII 16a). Turner made further sketches at Saint-Cloud, some looking towards Paris, on folios 4 verso, 16 verso, 21 verso, 25 verso, 26 verso, 27 verso–28 verso and 33 (Tate D24507, D24531, D24540, D24548, D24550, D24552–D24554, D24562; Turner Bequest CCLVIII 4a, 16a, 21a, 25a, 26a, 27a–28a, 33). These sketches are distinct in this book for Turner’s use of a rather blunt pencil which he used to outline the principal masses in his compositions and for very simplified but nevertheless evocative hatched shading.

There are further views of and at Paris on folios 4 verso, 14 verso, 26, 27, 28, 28 verso and 33 verso (Tate D24507, D24527, D24549, D24551, D24553, D24554, D24563; Turner Bequest CCLVIII 4a, 14a, 26, 27, 28, 28a, 33a).