Joseph Mallord William Turner

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

Technical notes:

The verso of this sheet is attached to the mount.