Joseph Mallord William Turner

Turner worked ink, gouache, and watercolour paints onto this sheet of blue paper to depict a distant view across Harfleur in Normandy from a western vantage. The spire of the Church of Saint-Martin rises above the town while the wide embouchure of the Seine spreads out on the right-hand side of the scene. For the two other colour studies of Harfleur which Turner worked up around this date, see the entry for Tate D24651 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 86). For his finished watercolour of the town painted with a view to printed reproduction, see Tate D24667 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 102). All this activity culminated in an engraving for the 1834 volume of Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France); see Tate impression T05596.

Technical notes:

The verso of this sheet is attached to the mount.