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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Northern France c.1826-32 > Loose Studies of Northern France > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Bonaparte's Column, Boulogne; Ambleteuse; Wimereux c.1826-30

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Bonaparte's Column, Boulogne; Ambleteuse; Wimereux’ c.1826-30
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Bonaparte's Column, Boulogne; Ambleteuse; Wimereux c.1826–30
D24892
Turner Bequest CCLX 56
Ink and pencil on faded blue paper, 138 x 193 mm
Inscribed by Turner in ink ‘Bounaparte’s Column’ top centre, ‘ambleteuse’ centre and ‘Vimareux’ bottom centre
Blind stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram three times, left
Stamped in black ‘CCLX 56’ bottom left, descending vertically
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is one of a batch of ink sketches of the coast of the English Channel between Calais and Boulogne on blue paper which can be dated on stylistic grounds to the later 1820s. Turner’s inscriptions allow us to identify the scenes, from top to bottom, as the monument of Napoleon outside Boulogne, and the towns of Ambleteuse and Wimereux up the coast to the north. The exact occasion of these studies is unknown although Turner specialist has suggested a link to an excursion from Calais on the return leg of the artist’s tour of Northern France in the autumn of 1826. 1 See the Introduction to this section for a list of these works.
1
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Seine, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1999, pp. 32, 253 note 86, 254 note 99.
Verso:
Blank

John Chu
March 2016

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Bonaparte's Column, Boulogne; Ambleteuse; Wimereux c.1826–30 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-bonapartes-column-boulogne-ambleteuse-wimereux-r1185570, accessed 19 September 2024.