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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Spring Tour of Northern France 1845 > Boulogne Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Ambleteuse Fort from the South 1845

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Ambleteuse Fort from the South’ 1845
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 10 Recto:
Ambleteuse Fort from the South 1845
D35413
Turner Bequest CCCLVIII 11
Gouache, pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 230 x 326 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Fort A[?mbleteuse]’ towards bottom centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘11’ bottom right
Blind stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards centre right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg tentatively transcribed Turner’s inscription on this page as ‘Fort Abletry’ although the second word is more likely a scrawled abbreviation of Ambleteuse, the distinctive skyline of which as viewed from the south is clearly featured in this sketch.1 From left to right can be seen the town’s slightly offshore seventeenth-century fort, its sloping cliffs, and its built-up centre raised to a somewhat exaggerated elevation.2
At the watercolour stage of composition the whole emphasis of the sketch has come to focus on the presence of the fortification and its reflection on the horizon. The pervasive warm tones, perhaps suggesting of sunset, are carried through to the crimson-coloured fort whose silhouette as given definition by a rectangular surrounding area of reserved paper.
1
Finberg 1909, vol.II, p.1168.
2
Jean-Denis G.G. Lepage, French Fortifications, 1715–1815: An Illustrated History, Jefferson NC 2010, p.188.
Verso:
Blank, except for patches for a small scattering of black dots and ochre brush-strokes continuing from folio 11 recto opposite (D35414; Turner Bequest CCCLVIII 12).

John Chu
November 2013

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Ambleteuse Fort from the South 1845 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2013, 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-ambleteuse-fort-from-the-south-r1173514, accessed 25 April 2024.