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 Views of Le Havre ?1829

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Coastal Views of Le Havre’ ?1829
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 21 Verso:
Coastal Views of Le Havre ?1829
D23739
Turner Bequest CCLIII 21a
Pencil on pale cream laid paper, 107 x 156 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘WOOD’ below centre
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The page contains two sketches, both drawn horizontally, and both of coastline. Finberg noted this page simply as ‘Banks of river’,1 but the location has been identified as Le Havre.2 The lower sketch in particular depicts the high cliffs which form a sheer backdrop over the port buildings on the water’s edge. Within this lower sketch appears text reading ‘WOOD’, suggesting Turner making a shorthand note to remind himself of the vegetation he perceived but does not depict in detail in this simple sketch.

Caroline South
May 2017

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.769.
2
?Ian Warrell, ‘Turner on the Seine: Topographical Index’, c.1999, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain (printout in copy of Ian Warrell, Turner on the Seine, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1999), p.3.

How to cite

Caroline South, ‘Coastal Views of Le Havre ?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-views-of-le-havre-r1195645, accessed 27 April 2024.