Joseph Mallord William Turner

Dieppe Lighthouse from the Western Jetty

1845

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Not on display

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Dieppe Sketchbook
Medium: Gouache and watercolour on paper
Dimensions: Support: 232 × 332 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D35464
Turner Bequest CCCLX 6

Catalogue entry

This watercolour sketch, achieved without an underlying pencil drawing, depicts the view from the western jetty looking back inland past the lighthouse to the chalk cliffs and the town centre beyond.1 Light watercolour washes in salmon, ochre, and grey have been applied to block in the landscape’s main masses while smaller, more intensely coloured strokes depict the choppy waters without the harbour. A small crowd appears to promenade and peer over the sea defences.

For reasons set out in the Technical notes in the sketchbook Introduction, this work appears inverted in relation to the volume as foliated.

For the history of Dieppe’s harbour infrastructure, see Jacques Bialek, Évolution du Port de Dieppe du XVIIe Siècle à nos Jours, Dieppe 1996.

Verso:

Blank; except for a few very light pencil marks towards the binding and a small spots of brown watercolour transferred from folio 6 recto opposite (D35465; Turner Bequest CCCLX 7).

John Chu
February 2014

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