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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Northern France 1832 > Loose Studies of Paris and the Seine > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Shipping at Canteleu, Normandy c.1832

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Shipping at Canteleu, Normandy’ c.1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Shipping at Canteleu, Normandy c.1832
D24643
Turner Bequest CCLIX 78
Gouache and watercolour with pen on blue paper, 138 x 191 mm
Blind-stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram bottom left
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner worked ink, gouache, and watercolour paints onto this sheet of blue paper to depict the Seine as it flows past the plateau-top village of Canteleu, Normandy. Sail-boats float upstream at the centre of the scene while figures in the foreground strain to the right, apparently dragging one of the vessels ashore. The architectural features on the far bank include the Convent of Sainte-Barbe with its belfry at the water’s edge and the tower of the Church of Saint-Martin rising above the brow of the hill. Art historian Ian Warrell has identified several drawings in the Tancarville and Lillebonne sketchbook as the basis for this composition: see Tate D23844 (Turner Bequest CCLIII 74), D23845 (Turner Bequest CCLIII 74a), D23851 (Turner Bequest CCLIII 77a).1 The existence of the present colour study suggests that Turner considered the subject as an illustration for Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France) although Canteleu did not make it into this publication in the event. 2
1
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Seine, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1999, p.270.
2
W[illiam] G[eorge] Rawlinson, The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., London 1908, vol.II, pp.264–76 nos.453–92.
Technical notes:
The verso of this sheet is attached to the mount.

John Chu
August 2014

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Shipping at Canteleu, Normandy c.1832 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-shipping-at-canteleu-normandy-r1173084, accessed 25 April 2024.