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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Spring Tour of Northern France 1845 > Boulogne Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Skyline ?at Boulogne 1845

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Skyline ?at Boulogne’ 1845
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 15 Recto:
The Skyline ?at Boulogne 1845
D35419
Turner Bequest CCCLVIII 16
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 230 x 326 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘16’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCCLVIII’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Whereas folio 14 verso opposite (D35417; Turner Bequest CCCLVIII 15) depicts an urban skyline in watercolour without pencil drawing, this sketch depicts the same subject in pencil without watercolour enhancement. That one of these images may have been composed with the assistance of the other might reasonably be proposed since the skyline occupies the same position on each page. The position of this sketch in the volume strongly implies that this is a view of Boulogne’s rooftops, perhaps featuring the bell tower in the old haute ville (literally, ‘high town’) to the left, although these pencil jottings are too cursory to make any definite identification.1
1
See Pierre Boissé (ed.), Boulogne-sur-mer: le château et la haute-ville, Pas-de-Calais, Paris c.1988.
Technical notes:
Considerable watercolour transference from folio 14 verso opposite (D35417; Turner Bequest CCCLVIII 15) has occurred in the lower right quadrant.

John Chu
November 2013

How to cite

John Chu, ‘The Skyline ?at Boulogne 1845 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2013, 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-the-skyline-at-boulogne-r1173519, accessed 25 April 2024.