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

Turner’s inscription suggests that this sketch, made with the sketchbook turned horizontally, depicts a distant view of Èze, one of the famous Provençal ‘villages perchés’ (perched villages) of France’s Mediterranean coastline. The artist appears to be sketching from a high viewpoint looking south-west with the sea and the jagged, undulating coastline on the left, and the craggy peaks of the hills and mountains bordering the coast on the right, and he has annotated the sketch with the position of Èze. Further sketches can be found on folios 15–17 and 18 verso–19 recto (D21161–D21165 and D21168–D21169).

There is a second sketch, the other way up at the outer edge, representing the rough profile outline of small islands off a stretch of coastline. The same rock formations can be seen within a sketch on the inside front cover opposite (D41068).