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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Autumn Tour of Northern France 1845 > Eu and Treport Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Ladies' Bathing Beach at Le Tréport 1845

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Ladies' Bathing Beach at Le Tréport’ 1845
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
The Ladies’ Bathing Beach at Le Tréport 1845
D35456
Turner Bequest CCCLIX 21
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 232 x 335 mm
Inscribed in pen and blue ink ‘1473’ bottom right
Stamped in black ink ‘CCCLIX–21’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Ian Warrell identifies this watercolour and pen sketch as a view of the ladies’ bathing beach at Le Tréport. A row of modest changing huts are arranged in a sheltered spot beside a sign reading ‘Bains | La Dames’ [sic]. In the wet sands of the lower right quadrant an adult points out another group of bathers to a child. Warrell pairs this piece with a stylistically comparable sketch which has been grouped conventionally with the Lausanne sketchbook of about 1841; see Tate D33537 (Turner Bequest CCCXXXIV 13). That sheet shows the ‘Bain des Hommes’, or men’s bathing beach, with the ladies’ beach featured here pushed deeper into the composition.
Technical notes:
The sketch, which has yellowed by exposure to sunlight, is pasted onto a sheet of thick cream wove paper. This has been inscribed ‘69’ at the centre. Beneath this the Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCCLIX – 21’ are stamped in black.

John Chu
February 2014

How to cite

John Chu, ‘The Ladies’ Bathing Beach at Le Tréport 1845 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-ladies-bathing-beach-at-le-treport-r1173550, accessed 31 October 2025.