Joseph Mallord William Turner

Harfleur, Normandy

c.1832

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment
Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Loose Studies of Paris and the Seine
Medium
Gouache and watercolour on paper
Dimensions
Support: 138 × 190 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D24654
Turner Bequest CCLIX 89

Catalogue entry

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.

John Chu
August 2014

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