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

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

Joseph Mallord William Turner Le Tréport Viewed from Mers-les-Bains 1845

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Le Tréport Viewed from Mers-les-Bains’ 1845
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Le Tréport Viewed from Mers-les-Bains 1845
D35447
Turner Bequest CCCLIX 12
Pencil, watercolour, and pen and ink on white wove paper, 231 x 330 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘12’ bottom right
Stamped in black ink ‘CCCLIX 12’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Matthieu Pinette identifies this scene as the view of Tréport and its chalk cliffs from the village of Mers-les-Bains, just to the east of the harbour mouth.1 The Church of St-Jacques du Tréport is centrally featured in blue-grey.2 In the foreground a relatively detailed sketch in red ink of a pair of mounted soldiers which Ian Warrell associates with the visit of Queen Victoria to this region. See the tour Introduction for the possible connections between of Turner’s tour and the Royal visit.
1
Gamble, Wildman and Pinette 2003, pp.128, 129.
2
For a contemporary description of St-Jacques du Tréport, see Jean Benoi^t De´sire´ Cochet, Les Églises de l’Arrondissement de Dieppe, Dieppe 1846, pp.182–191.
Verso:
Blank; except for patches of watercolour and various curators’ notes and endorsement marks. The centre of the sheet is inscribed with a semi-inverted ‘63’; ‘ccclix. 12’ is inscribed in pencil at the bottom centre; towards the bottom left the Turner Bequest monogram has been stamped in black ink above ‘CCCLIX – 12’; also towards bottom left is inscribed ‘4’ and ‘?JR’.

John Chu
February 2014

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Le Tréport Viewed from Mers-les-Bains 1845 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 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-le-treport-viewed-from-mers-les-bains-r1173543, accessed 25 April 2024.