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

This carefully wrought full-page study depicts the church of Saint-Jacques at Dieppe. Construction of the building is thought to have begun in 1185, when Henry II Plantagenet was in the process of erecting the Château de Dieppe.1 The church underwent extensive remodelling between 1283 and the end of the sixteenth century, following a fire and conflicts in the Hundred Years War.2 Saint-Jacques Church is historically on the ‘Camino de Santiago’ pilgrimage route. It features in Turner’s celebrated oil painting Harbour of Dieppe (Changement de Domicile), exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1825 (Frick Collection, New York).3

For other views of Dieppe in this sketchbook see Tate D19959, D19966, D19968–D19995, D19998–D20014, D20031–D20033; Turner Bequest CCXVI 205, 209a, 211–226a, 228–236, 244a–245a.