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

Inverted in relation to the sketchbook as foliated, this drawing continues onto folio 18 recto opposite (D23552; Turner Bequest CCLII 18), forming a single view from the high ground to the east of Caudebec-en-Caux all the way down the Seine valley to Villequier and beyond. On the right-hand side of the page is featured a row of buildings in the Normandy vernacular style beyond which the two spires of the church of Notre-Dame are cursorily sketched.1 As the view continues onto the facing page, the wide curve of the Seine assumes dominance, with a ship’s mast and the distant church tower at Villequier reflected in its waters.

Caudebec and its church, of all the Seine valley sights, were the subject of particular study in this sketchbook. For a list of associated sketches, see the main entry for folio 17 recto (D23550; Turner Bequest CCLII 17). For examples of the watercolours of Caudebec that Turner worked up with a view to engraved reproduction around this time, see Tate D20235 (Turner Bequest CCXXI B), D24670 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 105), D24760 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 195), and D24818 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 253). These culminated in an engraving in the 1834 volume of Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France); see Tate impression T05601.