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

This loose landscape study may present an idea relating to the life of Napoleon, the presumed purpose of some of the sheets it has historically been kept with; for more information about this grouping see the Introduction to this section.

The Turner Bequest’s first cataloguer, A.J. Finberg, called the sheet ‘On the Sea Shore’1. More recently the Turner scholar Jan Piggott noted the possible presence of goats and figures in the foreground, denoted using white chalk.2 While firm identification of the subject matter is difficult due to the study’s indistinct and unfinished nature, a number of others in this section have been identified as showing the Bridge of Boats at Coblenz on the left (or the bridge of wooden pontoons, which replaced the Bridge of Boats in 18193), with the Fortress of Ehrenbreitstein on the right (Tate D27543–D27544, D27549, D27553; Turner Bequest CCLXXX 26–27, 32, 36). This also appears a plausible, if uncertain, identification for the present sheet in terms of the hill indicated on the right, seen in front of the yellow light of a low sun, and the marks present above the water on the left. For a sheet that may show a comparable view previously identified as Ehrenbreitstein, see Tate D35863 (Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 26); that sheet forms part of a separate group of studies that may bear some relation to the present grouping.

Technical notes:

The year of the watermark cannot be determined as the mark is only partially visible on the present sheet. Turner’s use of white chalk is very apparent on this sheet.

Verso:

Blank, save for inscriptions: inscribed in pencil ‘CCLXXX 38’ lower right.