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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Normandy ?1829 > Tancarville and Lillebonne Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Coastal View of Honfleur ?1829

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Coastal View of Honfleur’ ?1829
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 11 Verso:
Coastal View of Honfleur ?1829
D23720
Turner Bequest CCLIII 11a
Pencil on pale cream laid paper, 107 x 156 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The page contains two rough sketches, both drawn horizontally, of the coast and buildings on the coast. Turner captures the essential shapes of the views, for example the tower of a lighthouse at centre left of the upper sketch, and a church-like building at top right of the lower sketch. Certain buildings are indicated very simply, for example a rectangular or possibly rounded building at centre right of the upper sketch, and possibly a lighthouse indicated by a vertical stroke on the cliff far right of the lower sketch.
Finberg noted this page simply as ‘Houses, &c., on river-banks’;1 however, the locations of Honfleur and Le Havre have been confirmed.2 (For further information on Honfleur, see under folio 1 recto; D23699.) Art historian Ian Warrell states3 that this page and the recto (D23719), as well as folio 20 recto (D23736) were used as preliminary sketches for Turner’s watercolour, Honfleur, Normandy from the West, c.1832 (Tate D24743; Turner Bequest CCLIX 178).
1
Finberg 1909, II, p.768.
2
Warrell 1999, pp.110, 259 note 34, p.269 no.68; ?Ian Warrell, ‘Turner on the Seine: Topographical Index’, c.1999, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain (printout in copy of Warrell 1999), p.3.
3
Warrell 1999, pp.110, 259 note 34, p.269 no.68.
Technical notes:
There appears to be a thumbprint at centre far left of the page.

Caroline South
May 2017

How to cite

Caroline South, ‘Coastal View of Honfleur ?1829 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2017, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-coastal-view-of-honfleur-r1195626, accessed 26 April 2024.