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 and the Channel Coast from Cliffs above the Harbour, with the Column of the Grande Armée to the North-East 1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Boulogne and the Channel Coast from Cliffs above the Harbour, with the Column of the Grande Armée to the North-East’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 15 Verso:
Boulogne and the Channel Coast from Cliffs above the Harbour, with the Column of the Grande Armée to the North-East 1825
D19426
Turner Bequest CCXV 15a
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As Finberg recognised, the panoramic subject spanning this page and folio 16 recto to its right (D19427) is Boulogne, with the Napoleonic Colonne de la Grande Armée in the distance.1 The viewpoint was what were then undeveloped cliffs towards the sea west of the harbour, around where the Rue Galilée now runs, ranging northwards here along the coast, with the lost telegraph tower at the end of the harbour’s western pier (as seen in various closer views, including folio 14 recto; D19424). The harbour was later substantially extended into the sea towards the foreground.
The column is seen towards the gutter, on the heights to the north-east; turning eastwards to the right, Boulogne itself is shown in some detail on the opposite page, under which its various landmarks are noted. There is a single-page variant from a little to the south on folio 18 recto (D19431); for other Boulogne subjects, see under folio 8 verso (D19416).

Matthew Imms
September 2020

1
See Finberg 1909, II, p.663.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Boulogne and the Channel Coast from Cliffs above the Harbour, with the Column of the Grande Armée to the North-East 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-and-the-channel-coast-from-cliffs-above-the-harbour-r1202781, accessed 20 May 2024.