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 > Dieppe Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dieppe Lighthouse from the Western Jetty 1845

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dieppe Lighthouse from the Western Jetty’ 1845
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 5 Recto:
Dieppe Lighthouse from the Western Jetty 1845
D35464
Turner Bequest CCCLX 6
Gouache and watercolour on white wove paper, 232 x 332 mm
Watermarked ‘J WHATMAN TURKEY MILL 1844’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘6’ top left, upside down
Blind stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom left
Stamped in black ‘CCCLX 6’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This watercolour sketch, achieved without an underlying pencil drawing, depicts the view from the western jetty looking back inland past the lighthouse to the chalk cliffs and the town centre beyond.1 Light watercolour washes in salmon, ochre, and grey have been applied to block in the landscape’s main masses while smaller, more intensely coloured strokes depict the choppy waters without the harbour. A small crowd appears to promenade and peer over the sea defences.
For reasons set out in the Technical notes in the sketchbook Introduction, this work appears inverted in relation to the volume as foliated.
1
For the history of Dieppe’s harbour infrastructure, see Jacques Bialek, Évolution du Port de Dieppe du XVIIe Siècle à nos Jours, Dieppe 1996.
Verso:
Blank; except for a few very light pencil marks towards the binding and a small spots of brown watercolour transferred from folio 6 recto opposite (D35465; Turner Bequest CCCLX 7).

John Chu
February 2014

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Dieppe Lighthouse from the Western Jetty 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-dieppe-lighthouse-from-the-western-jetty-r1173560, accessed 25 April 2024.