Turner worked gouache and watercolour painted onto ink drawing to depict the Cap de la Hève in Normandy as seen from the English Channel. The two lighthouses at the top of the high cliffs are clearly picked out in white paint while a boat in full sail makes its way through choppy waters. Sketches of this coastal landmark recur frequently in the
Seine and Paris sketchbooks and presumably contributed to the conception of this and four further studies on blue paper: Tate
D24566 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 1),
D24567 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 2),
D24594 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 29), and
D24820 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 255). For a list of the sketchbook drawings, see the entry for
D23975 (Turner Bequest CCLIV 48). For the finished watercolour of the Cap which Turner worked up with a view to engraved reproduction around this time, see Tate
D24701 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 136). All this activity culminated in the engraved vignette in 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
T05593.
