By Kind Permission of Lancaster University Library
By Kind Permission of Lancaster University Library
Engraved by Miller after Turner. ( The Rivers of France: Turner's Annual Tour - The Seine 1834. Rawlinson 468. Wilton 966.)
In The Elements of Drawing (1857), Ruskin recommends this engraving as 'particularly desirable' for study. Of the original watercolour, he wrote: 'No drawing in the great series of the "Rivers of France" surpasses this, and few equal it. It is beyond all wonder for ease, minuteness, and harmony of power; perfectly true and like the place; also inestimable as a type of Turner's consummate work' ( Works, 13.451). In the fifth volume of Modern Painters (1860) he discusses (and reproduces in a wood engraving), part of the sky of this work ( Works, 7.157). Ruskin's purchase of the Rouen watercolour, in 1857, was an event of great significance for him.
J.M.W. Turner 1775-1851
Rouen, from St. Catherine's Hill c.1832
?Watercolour and bodycolour on blue paper, 14x19cm
Engraving:
Engraved by W. Miller, 1834
Steel engraving, 10x13.5cm
Engraved for Turner's Annual Tour-The Seine, 1834
Provenance: John Ruskin; H. Yates Thompson
Further Comments: Several sketches of this subject can be found in the 'Rouen' sketchbook and also in the 'Dieppe, Rouen and Paris' sketchbook.
Collection: Untraced