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

With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled this page with studies of the riverside buildings of Paris. The vista along the centre of the page depicts Seine as it flows under the Pont au Change and past the Conciergerie. There are numerous pages featuring the riverside of Paris in the present volume, a list of which is provided in the sketchbook introduction. Turner made numerous studies of the city’s quaysides over the course of his career, culminating in several illustrations of the subject for the 1835 volume of Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France); see Tate impressions T05621–T05623.