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 near Le Havre, Normandy 1832

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Coastal Terrain near Le Havre, Normandy’ 1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 84 Recto:
Coastal Terrain near Le Havre, Normandy 1832
D24047
Turner Bequest CCLIV 84
Pencil on white wove paper, 174 x 117 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘84’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ink ‘CCLIV – 84’ 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 small coastal views. Art historian Ian Warrell has identified this and neighbouring sketches in the volume as depictions of the rolling coastline around Le Havre where the Seine debouches into the English Channel. Special attention has been paid in the lower right-hand quadrant of the page to the picturesque detail of a small ramshackle building scaled by a ladder. The distant waterside settlement towards the top right-hand corner is inscribed ‘Hon’, presumably identifying this as a south-westerly view from Le Havre towards the harbour of Honfleur. 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 near 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-coastal-terrain-near-le-havre-normandy-r1173452, accessed 19 April 2024.