Joseph Mallord William Turner

Engraved:
By John Cousen in 1833, published in 1834.

In this vignette watercolour, Turner evokes a moonlit view over sailing vessels beneath the two light-houses perched high on a cliff at the cape of La Hève, on the Seine Estuary just north of the port of Le Havre, in northern France. Turner conveys the scene with drama and delicacy. He exaggerates the height of the cliff for pictorial effect. Against the moonlight flooding the view, from the smaller dark boats in the foreground, fishermen draw in their nets. Behind these vessels, a graceful white sailing ship contrasts with a black smoky steamboat. This juxtaposition of sailboats and steamboats as symbols of old and new is a motif in Turner’s art. It is also presented in two other watercolours in this series, Between Quillebeuf and Villequier, c.1832 (Tate D24669; Turner Bequest CCLIX 104), Le Havre: Tour de François Ier, c.1832 (D24699; CCLIX 134) and most famously in the oil painting The Fighting ‘Temeraire’ of 1839 (Turner Bequest, National Gallery, London1).2

An engraving was made from the watercolour by Robert Wallace in 1833, as Light-Towers of the Heve (Tate impression T05593) as the frontispiece for the volume Wanderings by the Seine of 1834.3 The choice of this subject as the frontispiece may be a further indication of the importance of the sailing and steam vessel juxtaposition motif to Turner.

Turner made several preliminary studies for this design. Initial pencil sketches (Tate D24054–D24055; Turner Bequest CCLIV 87a, 88) are in his Seine and Paris sketchbook of 1832.4 There are also several colour studies (Tate D24566–D24567; Turner Bequest CCLIX 1, 2;5 and D24645; CCLIX 80).6

Verso:

Blank; at the time of writing the work was on loan and not available for inspection and confirmation.