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 Coastal Views of Harfleur and Graville ?1829

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Coastal Views of Harfleur and Graville’ ?1829
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 10 Recto:
Coastal Views of Harfleur and Graville ?1829
D23717
Turner Bequest CCLIII 10
Pencil on pale cream laid paper, 107 x 156 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘10’ bottom left descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLIII – 10’ bottom left descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The page contains three sketches, all drawn horizontally, of coastal landscapes. Turner picks out the shapes of buildings dotted within the landscapes. He records the outlines formed by upper towers and roofs against the sky or background, for example, that of the building at top right, the pointed tower at centre left, and those of more rectangular buildings at centre. Other buildings, namely the church tower depicted at top far left and centre far right, he records only with a few brief, light strokes.
Finberg noted this page simply as ‘Houses, &c., on river-banks’,1 but the location of Le Havre has been confirmed.2 The church depicted corresponds in shape to that of the Church of Saint-Martin, Harfleur (for further information on the church, see under folio 2 verso; D23702) and the shape of the building on the left of the lowest sketch corresponds to that of Graville Abbey (see under folio 6 verso; D23710). The preceding pages of the sketchbook depict scenes from Le Havre and the following pages show Harfleur, indicating Turner travelling eastwards from Le Havre towards the nearby towns of Graville and Harfleur.

Caroline South
May 2017

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.768.
2
?Ian Warrell, ‘Turner on the Seine: Topographical Index’, c.1999, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain (printout in copy of Ian Warrell, Turner on the Seine, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1999), p.3.

How to cite

Caroline South, ‘Coastal Views of Harfleur and Graville ?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-coastal-views-of-harfleur-and-graville-r1195623, accessed 20 May 2024.