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

These previously unidentified sketches were taken at Calais, where Turner stayed at the very end of his 1824 tour on 9 and 14 September before he returned to England on the 15th. The squared-off prospect at the uppermost register shows an expansive view of Calais harbour, with the Hôtel de Ville and Tour de Guet (the lighthouse) at right and the steeple of the Church of Notre-Dame at centre. Below this landscape sketch is shipping, recorded at the harbour walls looking towards the Fort Rouge which is just visible in the distance. This fortress, built out to sea on a platform of wooden stilts, is recorded again in the diminutive sketch orientated in accordance with the foliation (see also Tate D19574, D19923–D19925; Turner Bequest CCXVI 12, 186a–187a).