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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and French ... > Holland, Meuse and Cologne Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Boulogne from the South-East, with the Coast in the Distance 1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Boulogne from the South-East, with the Coast in the Distance’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 11 Recto:
Boulogne from the South-East, with the Coast in the Distance 1825
D19419
Turner Bequest CCXV 11
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘11’ top right, and ‘277’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXV – 11’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg correctly identified the prospect as showing Boulogne.1 The alignments of various landmarks show that the viewpoint was south-east of the walled old town, seen high on the right, where the Belfry (the Beffroi) is shown near the Porte Gayole, which is studied in detail on folio 10 recto (D19418) in two successive views suggesting that Turner continued walking into what was then open countryside toward today’s La Waroquerie district; later developments preclude a clear view.
Below to the left is the spire of St Nicholas’s Church with the harbour beyond to the west, and the inconspicuous vertical feature on the skyline at the right-hand edge appears to be the Napoleonic Colonne de la Grande Armée to the north, as shown beyond the harbour on folios 16 recto and 18 recto (D19427, D19431). It is unclear how the marks towards the bottom left, which seem to show an inverted skyline, relate to the main view. For others in and around Boulogne, see under folio 8 verso (D19416).
A loose pencil and watercolour view in the 1845 Boulogne sketchbook (Tate D35433; Turner Bequest CCCLVIII 23) seems to be from the same general direction.

Matthew Imms
September 2020

1
See Finberg 1909, II, p.663.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Boulogne from the South-East, with the Coast in the Distance 1825 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2020, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-boulogne-from-the-south-east-with-the-coast-in-the-distance-r1202774, accessed 19 May 2024.