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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Second Italian Tour 1828-9 > Lyons to Marseilles Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Views of Marseille: Fort Saint-Nicolas; Sailing Boats in the Malmousque Cove; The Château d'If and Frioul Islands 1828

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Views of Marseille: Fort Saint-Nicolas; Sailing Boats in the Malmousque Cove; The Château d'If and Frioul Islands’ 1828
Folio 60 Recto:
Views of Marseille: Fort Saint-Nicolas; Sailing Boats in the Malmousque Cove; The Château d’If and Frioul Islands 1828
D21106
Turner Bequest CCXXX 59
Pencil on cream lined wove paper, 145 x 111 mm
Inscribed in blue ink by John Ruskin ‘59’ top right, and ‘4’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXXX 59’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains several studies of Marseille. The geographer and Turner researcher Roland Courtot has identified the upper sketch as the view from Endoume.1 Looking north-east, Turner sketched the Saint-Victor Abbey and the extensive ramparts of Fort Saint-Nicolas, the military fortifications built under Louis XIV. Beyond, to the left, is the spire of Notre-Dame-des-Accoules. This vista continues from folio 59 verso opposite (D21105; Turner bequest CCXXX 58a). The two hilly formations in the foreground appear not to be connected to the same view.
The inverted study beneath is thought by Courtot to depict sailing vessels in the cove of Malmousque, a fishing district south-west of the main city port.2 Looking westwards out to sea, Turner used the bottom of the page to profile the Château d’If and Frioul Islands. This vista also extends from the page opposite.
For a general commentary on Turner’s visit to Marseille and a list of comparable works in the sketchbook, see under folio 53 recto (D21092; Turner Bequest CCXXX 52).

Hannah Kaspar
March 2024

1
Roland Courtot, ‘6. Le carnet du voyage de Turner de Lyon à Marseille (CCXXX)(3)’, Carnets de voyage de Turner, accessed 29 January 2024, https://carnetswt.hypotheses.org/528.
2
Ibid.

How to cite

Hannah Kaspar, ‘Views of Marseille: Fort Saint-Nicolas; Sailing Boats in the Malmousque Cove; The Château d’If and Frioul Islands 1828’, catalogue entry, March 2024, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2025, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/views-of-marseille-fort-saint-nicolas-sailing-boats-in-the-malmousque-cove-the-chateau-dif-r1209766, accessed 26 August 2025.