J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Northern France c.1826-32 > Loose Studies of Northern France > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dieppe from the East ?1826-7

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dieppe from the East’ ?1826-7
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Dieppe from the East ?1826–7
D20207
Turner Bequest CCXX A
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 170 x 238 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Girls m[...] nets’ top right
Blind stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCXX A’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This loose colour sketch is one of several comparable works first documented by John Ruskin as a view of Dieppe harbour. As A.J. Finberg noted in his 1909 inventory of the Turner Bequest, Ruskin grouped this work together with twenty other ‘slight coloured sketches, chiefly from Dieppe’. 1 A note which was once appended to this parcel of works reveals that Ruskin held them in low regard, judging that they had been executed ‘in some careless or sickly state of mind’. 2 More recently, the sheet has been identified as a preparatory work towards one of several abortive attempts to put the material gathered on the 1826 tour of Northern France to use,3 most likely the failed The English Channel or La Manche print series.4
1
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.685.
2
Ibid.
3
David Blayney Brown, Sarah Skinner and Ian Warrell, Coasting: Turner and Bonington on the Shores of the Channel, exhibition catalogue, Nottingham Castle 2008, p.59.
4
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Loire, Tate Gallery, London 1997, pp.23–4, 159 reproduced as fig.153, 207 note 8, 217 no.30
Technical Notes:
The sheet was formerly attached to D20210 (Turner Bequest CCXX D) along the right-hand edge.1
1
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Loire, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, p.217.
Verso:
The sheet is attached to its mount.

John Chu
March 2016

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Dieppe from the East ?1826–7 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-dieppe-from-the-east-r1185462, accessed 26 April 2024.