Joseph Mallord William Turner

Cliffs on the French Channel Coast around Boulogne and Wimereux

1845

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Dieppe and Kent Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 86 × 111 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D35636
Turner Bequest CCCLXI 84

Catalogue entry

Among similar but unidentified views of Channel coastlines on adjacent pages (see the listing at the end of this sketchbook’s Introduction), these are annotated with ‘Bol’ and ‘Vim’, presumably for Boulogne and neighbouring Wimereux, south-west of Calais. For other likely Boulogne views, see under folio 1 recto (D35487).

Turner’s sketchbooks from his penultimate French tour, earlier in 1845, are known as Ambleteuse and Wimereux and Boulogne (Tate; Turner Bequest CCCLVII, CCCLVIII); see John Chu’s Introduction to the ‘Spring Tour of Northern France 1845’ section for the artist’s earlier visits to the area.

Matthew Imms
September 2016

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