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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > The Second Meuse-Moselle Tour 1839 > Cochem to Coblenz - Home Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Ostend: A Harbour, from the Sea; Harbour Scene 1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Ostend: A Harbour, from the Sea; Harbour Scene’ 1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 1 Recto:
?Ostend: A Harbour, from the Sea; Harbour Scene 1839
D28538
Turner Bequest CCXCI 1
Pencil on cream laid writing paper, 156 x 100 mm
Watermarked with French imperial eagle
Inscribed in red ink by Ruskin ‘1’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXCI–1’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Here Turner has made a swift record of a harbour, possibly Ostend, orientated inversely to the foliation. An array of craft is docked in the marina: small rowing boats and cobbles can be seen, marked out by cursory curved lines, with larger sailing vessels with tall masts in the middle distance. Figures animate the scene at right. Two further sketches of a walled harbour run parallel to the gutter of the book.
The same harbour is depicted opposite, on the paper paste-down of the inside front cover (Tate D41216) and on folio 1 verso (Tate D28539; Turner Bequest CCXCI 1a).
Technical notes:
The leather loop on the inside front cover has stained the sheet.

Alice Rylance-Watson
August 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘?Ostend: A Harbour, from the Sea; Harbour Scene 1839 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-ostend-a-harbour-from-the-sea-harbour-scene-r1150821, accessed 26 April 2024.