Joseph Mallord William Turner

Figures, Normandy

1826

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Cherbourg, Coutances and Mont St Michel Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 131 × 91 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D23385
Turner Bequest CCL 27

Catalogue entry

Inverted in relation to the sketchbook as foliated, the figures which Turner worked onto the left-hand side of this page appear in contrasting dress. The large female figure carrying parcels is in modest dress of shawl and clogs while, directly below, is a fashionable couple sporting a large bonnet and tall hat. The larger figure has been identified as a woman of the harbour of Granville.1

Maurice Guillaud, Nicholas Alfrey, Andrew Wilton and others, Turner en France: aquarelles, peintures, dessins, gravures, carnets de croquis / Turner in France: Watercolours, Paintings, Drawings, Engravings, Sketchbooks, exhibition catalogue, Centre Culturel du Marais, Paris 1981, p.304.

Technical notes:

There is a small brown stain at the top of the page.

John Chu
May 2015

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