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

This page contains two variant studies of the port of Marseille, executed with the sketchbook turned upside down. The upper sketch records Turner’s north-facing view as he stood on the Quai de Rive Neuve. In the distance is the seventeenth-century Fort Saint-Jean, with the domed tower of the Tour du Fanal marking the port entrance. In the foreground, several figures gather around a boat, possibly repairing fishing nets. Turner’s inscription beneath the boat appears to read ‘Boat with Red and Wh[ite] | 25’, which as Maurice Guillaud noted is ‘the colour of the craft so familiar along the Mediterranean shores’.1

The lower sketch records Turner’s south-facing view of Fort Saint-Nicolas from the opposite side of the port. Fishing boats appear in the foreground to the left, and the corner of the Tour du Roi René is visible to the right. This pencil sketch bears certain compositional similarities to a later study of Marseille by Turner, executed in watercolour and gouache (Tate D29031; Turner Bequest CCXCII 80).

For a general commentary on Turner’s visit to Marseille and a list of comparable works in the sketchbook, see under folio 53 recto (D21092; Turner Bequest CCXXX 52).