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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Northern France 1832 > Seine and Paris Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Coastal Terrain with Shipping and Buildings; ?Cap de le Hève, Normandy 1832

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Coastal Terrain with Shipping and Buildings; ?Cap de le Hève, Normandy’ 1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 80 Recto:
Coastal Terrain with Shipping and Buildings; ?Cap de le Hève, Normandy 1832
D24039
Turner Bequest CCLIV 80
Pencil on white wove paper, 174 x 117 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘G’ centre left, descending vertically
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘80’ bottom right
Stamped in black ink ‘CCLIV – 80’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner filled much of this page with coastal vistas punctuated by buildings and different varieties of shipping. The long coastal landscape running vertically down the left-hand side of the page which ends in an abrupt cliff presumably represents Cap de le Hève on the edge of the Seine’s wide embouchure which was the subject of extensive study in this volume. Particular attention has been paid at the top of this page to the dark silhouette of steamboats against a distant shoreline. Such modern conveyances were to be a recurrent feature of the series of engraved Seine views with which Turner was involved at that time. See the 1834 and 1835 volumes of Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France); especially Tate impressions T04699, T05601, T05603, T05609, T05625.
A list of pages in the sketchbook featuring Le Havre and Cap de la Hève is provided in the entry for folio 48 recto (D23975; Turner Bequest CCLIV 48).

John Chu
July 2014

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Coastal Terrain with Shipping and Buildings; ?Cap de le Hève, Normandy 1832 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 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-coastal-terrain-with-shipping-and-buildings-cap-de-le-heve-r1173444, accessed 19 September 2024.