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 Quayside Landscapes, Le Havre ?1829

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Quayside Landscapes, Le Havre’ ?1829
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 9 Recto:
Quayside Landscapes, Le Havre ?1829
D23715
Turner Bequest CCLIII 9
Pencil on pale cream laid paper, 107 x 156 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘9’ top right ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLIII – 9’ top right ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The page contains three sketches, drawn horizontally, of buildings and a bastion along the coast, with higher ground indicated in the background. Finberg recorded these sketches as ‘Houses on quay, &c.’;1 however, the location of Le Havre has been confirmed.2 Art historian Ian Warrell mentions3 that the lowest sketch on this page and folio 8 verso opposite (D23714) relate to Turner’s later watercolour The Porte Royale at Le Havre, Normandy, c.1832 (Tate D24746; Turner Bequest CCLIX 181).
Turner records the shapes of buildings, including the lighthouse just left of centre in the uppermost sketch. The sketches may be continuations of the same panorama.
1
Finberg 1909, II, p.768.
2
Warrell 1999, p.269 no.65; ?Ian Warrell, ‘Turner on the Seine: Topographical Index’, c.1999, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain (printout in copy of Warrell 1999), p.3.
3
Warrell 1999, p.269 no.65.
Technical notes:
There is a small crease on the top left corner of the page.

Caroline South
May 2017

How to cite

Caroline South, ‘Quayside Landscapes, 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-quayside-landscapes-le-havre-r1195621, accessed 20 May 2024.