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 The Parish Church of Notre-Dame at Le Havre, Normandy 1832

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Parish Church of Notre-Dame at Le Havre, Normandy’ 1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 83 Recto:
The Parish Church of Notre-Dame at Le Havre, Normandy 1832
D24045
Turner Bequest CCLIV 83
Pencil on white wove paper, 174 x 117 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘83’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ink ‘CCLIV – 83’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned horizontally, Turner filled much of this page with a drawing of the grand Parish Church at Le Havre and its surrounding buildings. Particular attention has been paid to the recession of irregular architectural masses in perspective and to the elaborate stone ornamentation of the ecclesiastic structure. This important building did not feature in either of the two depictions of the town included in the 1834 volume of Turner’s Annual Tour: Wanderings by the Loire and Seine (1833–5; later reissued as Rivers of France); see Tate impressions T05594 and T04699. However, a comparable watercolour sketch from around the same date suggests that this possibility was under consideration; see Tate D24816 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 251). 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, ‘The Parish Church of Notre-Dame at Le Havre, 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-the-parish-church-of-notre-dame-at-le-havre-normandy-r1173450, accessed 24 April 2024.