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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > South-Eastern France and Genoa 1838 > Coast of Genoa Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Four Views of Toulon 1838

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Four Views of Toulon’ 1838
Folio 1 Verso:
Four Views of Toulon 1838
D21272
Turner Bequest CCXXXII 1a
Pencil on white wove paper, 157 x 98 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘[?Blaquis Gros Tour | Gose White]’ bottom centre
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Geographer and Turner researcher Roland Courtot has identified the subject of the sketches on this page as Toulon, a city on France’s Mediterranean coastline, approximately thirty miles south-east of Marseille.1 There are at least four successive drawings, executed with the sketchbook held vertically, which appear to show variant views of the old port and arsenal. Additionally, at the very bottom of the page, several small studies of boats, annotated with Turner’s inscriptions (see above).
Toulon represents the starting point of the journey described in this sketchbook. Upon leaving the city, Turner appears to have travelled inland to his next destination, Fréjus. For a detailed overview of his itinerary, see the Introduction to this sketchbook.
Additional sketches of Toulon are included on folio 2 recto opposite (D21273).

Nicola Moorby
October 2018

Revised by Hayley Flynn
June 2025

1
Roland Courtot, ‘Carnet de voyage de Turner: 9. Notebook CCXXXII “Côte de Génès” (1838?)’, Hypotheses, 24 August 2018, accessed 24 June 2024, https://carnetswt.hypotheses.org/949.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Four Views of Toulon 1838’, catalogue entry, October 2018, revised by Hayley Flynn, June 2025, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, July 2026, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/four-views-of-toulon-r1213449, accessed 17 September 2026.