The Jetties ?at Dieppe

1845

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Dieppe Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite, gouache and watercolour on paper
Dimensions: Support: 232 x 332 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D35472
Turner Bequest CCCLX 14

Catalogue entry

This loose ochre and brown watercolour sketch, with its effects of watery reflection and cursory pencil drawing of a sailing ship, depicts a coastal scene presumably in or near Dieppe. If the view was taken at that harbour town, it is likely that the dark horizontal and light vertical forms at the centre of the composition represent the harbour’s mouth from the beach, with its jetties and lighthouse.1

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

For the history of Dieppe’s harbour infrastructure, see Jacques Bialek, Évolution du Port de Dieppe du XVIIe Siècle à nos Jours, Dieppe 1996.

Verso:

Blank; except for patches of grey watercolour transferred from folio 14 recto opposite (D35473; Turner Bequest CCCLX 15).

John Chu
February 2014

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