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

The page contains a sketch, drawn horizontally, of the harbour in the town of Harfleur. Finberg identified this sketch as being of ‘Harfleur’, comparing it to the subsequent engraving noted below. ¹ The Harfleur location has been confirmed;2 for further information on the town, see under folio 1 recto (D23699). The church on the left is recognisable from the shape of its tower as Saint-Martin (for further information on the church, see under folio 2 verso; D23702).

A boat is depicted in the mid-distance left of centre and a further boat is sketched roughly on the left. The object depicted at bottom centre-left is the bare skeleton framework of a boat; Turner records the shape of the boat’s keel and end through the rounded lines on the right, and the outline formed by the boat’s framework on the left, whilst the oblique slanting strokes note the general impression of the boat’s ribs. The object is depicted more clearly in Turner’s later watercolour, Harfleur, c.1832 (Tate D24667; Turner Bequest CCLIX 102)3 which he based on this sketch,4 with additional reference to the recto (D23707).5 It was engraved for Turner’s Annual Tour – Wanderings by the Seine, 1834 (Tate impressions: T05596, T06225).

The harbour sweeps down to the right and there is an area in the foreground far left which seems either a rocky outcrop or broken stone building but which in the watercolour is shown to be a wooden boathouse.