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

This previously unidentified sketch, catalogued by Finberg as showing a ‘Group of buildings’, in fact shows the port of Dunkirk in northern France. The buildings recorded by Turner are the Tour de Leughenaer at left and the Belfry in the middle distance at right. The Tour du Leughenaer, or ‘Liar’s Tower’ was originally constructed in the fifteenth century and then remodelled as a lighthouse in 1814.1 The Belfry, a pale brick tower constructed in around 1233 for the Bishop of Cambrai, once held the bells for the Church of Saint-Eloi. It alone remained standing after the rest of the church was destroyed by fire in the sixteenth century.2 Turner pictures the Belfry again in a detailed study near top right. The artist was in Dunkirk on 8 September 1824. For other drawings of the city see Tate D19911, D19915–D19916, D19918–D19919, D19942; Turner Bequest CCXVI 180, 182–183, 184–184a, 196.