The Parish Church of Notre-Dame at Le Havre, Normandy

c.1832

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Loose Studies of Paris and the Seine
Medium: Gouache and watercolour on paper
Dimensions: Support: 140 x 192 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D24816
Turner Bequest CCLIX 251

Catalogue entry

Turner worked gouache and watercolour paints onto this sheet of blue paper to depict the grand Parish Church at Le Havre, Normandy and its surrounding buildings. Ink has been used to define the crowded hubbub of the foreground while a few dry brush-strokes at the end of the street indicate ships’ masts so as to reveal the town’s maritime character. The existence of the present colour study, based on a pencil sketch in the Seine and Paris sketchbook (Tate D24045; Turner Bequest CCLIV 83) suggests that Turner considered the subject as an illustration for Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France) although Notre-Dame du Havre did not make it into this publication in the event.1

W[illiam] G[eorge] Rawlinson, The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., London 1908, vol.II, pp.264–76 nos.453–92.

Technical notes:

The verso of this sheet is attached to the mount.

John Chu
July 2014

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