Joseph Mallord William Turner

Honfleur, with the Church of Sainte-Catherine

?1829

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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: D23736
Turner Bequest CCLIII 20

Catalogue entry

The page contains two sketches, both drawn horizontally, of views over a coastal town with higher ground beyond. Finberg noted this page as ‘Town, with Church’,1 but the location has been identified as Honfleur.2 (For further information on Honfleur, see under folio 1 recto, D23699.)

Art historian Ian Warrell 3 notes that this page (as well as folios 11 recto and verso; D23719–D23720) was used as the preliminary sketch for Turner’s later watercolour, Honfleur, Normandy from the West, c.1832 (Tate D24743; Turner Bequest CCLIX 178). The two church towers at centre of the upper sketch, and the tower depicted at centre of the lower sketch, correspond in shape to those of the Church of Sainte-Catherine at Honfleur.

Finberg 1909, II, p.769.

Warrell 1999, pp.78, 110, 258 note 81, p.259 notes 34 and 36, p.269 no.68; ?Ian Warrell, ‘Turner on the Seine: Topographical Index’, c.1999, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain (printout in copy of Warrell 1999), p.3.

Warrell 1999, pp.78, 110–1, 258 note 81, p.259 notes 34, 36, p.269 no.68.

Technical notes:

There is a small brownish spot stain at bottom centre of the page and a further two such spots in the gutter of the sketchbook.

Caroline South
May 2017

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