Last Tours to the Continent
Turner continued the habit of spending part of each year on a sketching tour throughout his life. In the early 1840s Turner made annual trips to Switzerland, but in 1845 extended duties at the Royal Academy and failing health forced the artist to cancel his planned expedition. He did however manage a couple of short trips to France.

The first of these two visits started in May 1845 when Turner crossed the Channel from Margate to Boulogne and spent a few weeks exploring the coast at Ambleteuse and Wimereaux, armed with a couple of roll sketchbooks (portable, lightweight sketchbooks with soft covers that make it possible to roll the book up). The free and fluid studies Turner produced on this trip concentrate on rendering the effects of light and weather as observed on the coast. The artist's handling of watercolour in these works is experimental, using loose colour washes and broad brushstrokes to evoke atmosphere, water and light.

A few months later, in September, Turner embarked on his second trip of the year, this time starting in Dieppe and working along the coast of Picardy in search of 'storms and shipwrecks'. In the series of drawings he produced Turner seems particularly interested in local landmarks such as castles against the backdrop of windswept beaches and dramatic skies. As well as using watercolour the artist has also drawn the finer details of architecture or landscape in pencil or pen and red ink.

Whilst working along the coast in the autumn of 1845, Turner was invited to Eu Palace to renew his acquaintance with King Louis-Philippe, the restored monarch of France. Turner had come to know the 'Citizen King' around 1806 when Louis was living in exile near Turner's home in Twickenham. The standard, but slightly fanciful version of the 1845 encounter suggests that Turner was travelling with just his sketchbooks and only a limited change of clothes, and on receiving an invitation to dine with the King at his château had to improvise a cravat from some old linen in order to look presentable enough. In fact, he had actually received an invitation from Louis-Philippe before leaving London.

These trips along the French coast proved to be Turner's last journeys abroad. The artist who had depicted the beauty and drama of the sea throughout his career never crossed the Channel again.