Joseph Mallord William Turner

The Lighthouse at Dieppe Harbour

1845

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Not on display

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Dieppe Sketchbook
Medium: Gouache and watercolour on paper
Dimensions: Support: 232 × 332 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D35462
Turner Bequest CCCLX 4

Catalogue entry

This brown and ochre watercolour sketch, achieved without an underlying pencil drawing, depicts the view from the banks of Dieppe’s port channel up the western jetty to the lighthouse, and thence out to sea.1 The long eastern jetty with its close rows of piers extends to the centre of the page from the right.

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 small spots of brown watercolour transferred from folio 4 recto opposite (D35463; Turner Bequest CCCLX 5).

John Chu
February 2014

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