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

The Turner scholar C.F. Bell amended Finberg’s 1909 Inventory entry (‘View of town, probably Boulogne-sur-Mer’), crossing through the first four words.1 The setting is indeed Boulogne, looking east from the harbour to quayside houses, with windmills on the skyline to the left, the tower of the Belfry (the Beffroi) above the walls of the upper town at the centre, and the spire of St Nicholas’s Church just inland on the right. Later developments and severe damage in the Second World War mean that only the church survived in the vicinity of the harbour, obscured by later buildings. Among others there, much the same view is shown on Tate D19325 (Turner Bequest CCXIV 244a) in the contemporary Holland sketchbook; see also folios 77 verso–78 recto in the present book (D19531–D19532).

Although the two halves are not continuous, this view is effectively carried on to the left on folio 14 recto opposite (D19424), turning north to the cliffs and north-west to the piers flanking the harbour channel. For other Boulogne subjects, see under folio 8 verso (D19416).