Joseph Mallord William Turner

Coastal Views of Le Havre

?1829

Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

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Not on display

Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Tancarville and Lillebonne Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 107 × 156 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D23739
Turner Bequest CCLIII 21 a

Catalogue entry

The page contains two sketches, both drawn horizontally, and both of coastline. Finberg noted this page simply as ‘Banks of river’,1 but the location has been identified as Le Havre.2 The lower sketch in particular depicts the high cliffs which form a sheer backdrop over the port buildings on the water’s edge. Within this lower sketch appears text reading ‘WOOD’, suggesting Turner making a shorthand note to remind himself of the vegetation he perceived but does not depict in detail in this simple sketch.

Caroline South
May 2017

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.769.
2
?Ian Warrell, ‘Turner on the Seine: Topographical Index’, c.1999, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain (printout in copy of Ian Warrell, Turner on the Seine, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1999), p.3.

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