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

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

Joseph Mallord William Turner Eu from the North-East 1845

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Eu from the North-East’ 1845
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Eu from the North-East 1845
D35437
Turner Bequest CCCLIX 2
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 231 x 326 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘2’ bottom right
Stamped in black ink ‘CCCLIX 2’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Ian Warrell has indentified this and as one of two views of Eu in the sketchbook taken from a high hill north-east of the town;1 see also D35448 (Turner Bequest CCCLIX 13). A rather complex application of ochre, blue, ruddy brown, and pink washes describes the town in the midst of the Bresle valley with the sea beyond, as indicated by a line of azure blue towards the upper register. Particularly prominent is the pink and blue bulk of the medieval collégiale, or ‘collegiate church’ of Notre-Dame and St-Laurent.2 To the left, connected to the larger edifice by a line of blue watercolour, is the lilac form of the seventeenth-century chapel of the Jesuit college.3
1
Warrell 1995, p.39.
2
For a contemporary description of the collegiate church, see John Murray (ed.), Hand-Book for Travellers in France, revised ed., London, Paris and Leipzig 1844, pp.66–7.
3
For a description of the Jesuit chapel, see also Richard Snailham, Normandy and Brittany: from Le Tréport to St-Nazaire, London c.1986, p.26.
Verso:
The verso is not available for inspection as the sketch is attached to its mount.

John Chu
February 2014

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Eu from the North-East 1845 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 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-eu-from-the-north-east-r1173533, accessed 19 April 2024.