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 > Dieppe Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Jetties ?at Dieppe 1845

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Jetties ?at Dieppe’ 1845
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 13 Recto:
The Jetties ?at Dieppe 1845
D35472
Turner Bequest CCCLX 14
Pencil, gouache and watercolour on white wove paper, 232 x 332 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘14’ top left, upside down
Blind stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCLX 14’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This loose ochre and brown watercolour sketch, with its effects of watery reflection and cursory pencil drawing of a sailing ship, depicts a coastal scene presumably in or near Dieppe. If the view was taken at that harbour town, it is likely that the dark horizontal and light vertical forms at the centre of the composition represent the harbour’s mouth from the beach, with its jetties and lighthouse.1
For reasons set out in the Technical notes in the sketchbook Introduction, this work appears inverted in relation to the volume as foliated.
1
For the history of Dieppe’s harbour infrastructure, see Jacques Bialek, Évolution du Port de Dieppe du XVIIe Siècle à nos Jours, Dieppe 1996.
Verso:
Blank; except for patches of grey watercolour transferred from folio 14 recto opposite (D35473; Turner Bequest CCCLX 15).

John Chu
February 2014

How to cite

John Chu, ‘The Jetties ?at Dieppe 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-the-jetties-at-dieppe-r1173568, accessed 26 April 2024.