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.

The Turner scholar Ian Warrell has tentatively connected this study to another sheet that more definitively details the interior of Notre-Dame church in Louviers, Normandy (Tate D24852; Turner Bequest CCLX 16). The Gothic church interiors certainly appear similar in the two sketches, while the technique used and the figures included are very much alike. While the south façade and porch were the key attractions for artists visiting the church of Notre-Dame (for a study by Turner see Tate D24840; Turner Bequest CCLX 4), Turner also took an interest in the interior and the activities of the Catholic congregation. Warrell noted that Turner also made sketches of a service at Petworth church in 1827, and hypothesized that he may have been consciously contrasting the practices of Catholics and Protestants in his sketches.1

For further views of the church catalogued within this section see Tate D24902, D24909, D24950, D24962 and D24967 (Turner Bequest CCLX 66, 73, 114, 126, 131).

Verso:

Blank, save for some pencil lines and inscriptions: inscribed in pencil ‘42/a’ centre; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCLX–15’ centre right.