Joseph Mallord William Turner

This watercolour sketch, worked over a relatively detailed pencil drawing, takes in the main section of Dieppe harbour from a slight elevation near the district of Pollet. The harbour waters, shown at the point at which the dark brown quai du Carénage divides them in two, are indicated by a section of ‘reserved’ blank paper. The Church of St-Jacques rises above a tall row of terraced, harbour-side buildings while ships’ masts, crowds of people, and carriages picked out with ‘dropped-in’ patches of brown evoke the hubbub of a busy port and tourist town. Two elegant figures to the right of the page join the viewer as spectators of the scene; in this respect, like folio 12 recto (D35471; Turner Bequest CCCLX 13) the page draws the viewer into the comings and goings of leisurely holiday-making.1

For reasons set out in the Technical notes in the sketchbook Introduction, this work appears inverted in relation to the volume as foliated.

Verso:

Blank; except for a light patch of grey watercolour transferred from folio 12 recto opposite (D35471; Turner Bequest CCCLX 13).