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 Honfleur, with a View of the Lieutenancy Building ?1829

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Honfleur, with a View of the Lieutenancy Building’ ?1829
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 15 Verso:
Honfleur, with a View of the Lieutenancy Building ?1829
D23727
Turner Bequest CCLIII 15a
Pencil on pale cream laid paper, 107 x 156 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The page contains three sketches, all drawn horizontally. Finberg noted it simply as ‘Group buildings’,1 but the location has been identified as Honfleur.2 (For further information on Honfleur, see under folio 1 recto, D23699.) The uppermost sketch shows the harbour, with a bastion over the sea. The central sketch is a street scene. The distinctive shape of the structure on the left, with its turrets indicated at right, and archway below, is that of the Lieutenancy building (for further information see under folio 14 verso; D23725).
Art historian Ian Warrell notes3 that this sketch was used as a preliminary source (together with the recto, D23726, and with reference to folios 14 verso and 17 recto; D23725, D23730) for Turner’s later watercolour, The Lieutenancy Building at Honfleur, Normandy, c.1832 (Tate D24641; Turner Bequest CCLIX 76). The lower sketch is of buildings leading down to the water, with the sea and coastline stretching into the distance on the right, as in Honfleur.
1
Finberg 1909, II, p.768.
2
Warrell 1999, pp.110, 114, 259 note 34, p.269 no.69; ?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, Seine, 1999, pp.110, 114, 259 note 34, p.269 no.69.
Technical notes:
There is a slight brown splash stain on the right edge of the page.

Caroline South
May 2017

How to cite

Caroline South, ‘Honfleur, with a View of the Lieutenancy Building ?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-honfleur-with-a-view-of-the-lieutenancy-building-r1195633, accessed 19 April 2024.