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 ?1829

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Honfleur’ ?1829
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 17 Verso:
Honfleur ?1829
D23731
Turner Bequest CCLIII 17a
Pencil on pale cream laid paper, 107 x 156 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?Door]’ and ‘[?Gateway]’ towards bottom right, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The page contains two sketches, both drawn horizontally. Finberg noted this page simply as ‘Distant headland, &c.’,1 but the location has been identified as Honfleur.2 (For further information on Honfleur, see under folio 1 recto, D23699.) The upper sketch is of headland on the coast. Turner indicates a building at the top centre of the cliffs with a few minimal strokes.
The lower sketch, drawn with the page turned upside down, is a rough depiction of buildings leading down to the sea in the distance. Some text appears at far left of this sketch which could read ‘Door’ and below this ‘Gateway’, and could correspond to the apparent sketched lines immediately to the right of the text which may depict a gateway within a fortified tower, but the lines and text are too indistinct to be certain of this reading.
1
Finberg 1909, II, p.768.
2
Warrell 1999, pp.110, 259 note 34; ?Ian Warrell, ‘Turner on the Seine: Topographical Index’, c.1999, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain (printout in copy of Warrell 1999), p.3.
Technical notes:
A grey ink streak appears at upper far left of the page.

Caroline South
May 2017

How to cite

Caroline South, ‘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-honfleur-r1195637, accessed 20 September 2024.