Joseph Mallord William Turner Light-Towers of la Hève (Vignette) c.1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
Light-Towers of la Hève (Vignette)
c.1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Light-Towers of la Hève (Vignette) c.1832
D24701
Turner Bequest CCLIX 136
Turner Bequest CCLIX 136
Pencil gouache and watercolour with pen on blue paper, 187 x 133 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil with numerals ‘1’ to ‘31’ towards bottom edge, and less legibly with column of numerals down left-hand edge
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom left
Stamped in black ‘CCLIX – 136’ bottom left, descending vertically
Inscribed by Turner in pencil with numerals ‘1’ to ‘31’ towards bottom edge, and less legibly with column of numerals down left-hand edge
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom left
Stamped in black ‘CCLIX – 136’ bottom left, descending vertically
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1904
National Gallery, London, various dates to at least 1904 (160, as ‘Light Towers of the Hève. (Vignette)’).
1981
Turner en France: aquarelles, peintures, dessins, gravures, carnets de croquis / Turner in France: Watercolours, Paintings, Drawings, Engravings, Sketchbooks, Centre Culturel du Marais, Paris, October 1981–January 1982 (109).
1993
Turner’s Vignettes, Tate Gallery, London, September 1993–February 1994 (29).
1995
Making & Meaning: Turner: The Fighting Temeraire, National Gallery, London, July–October 1995 (41).
1999
Turner on the Seine, Tate Gallery, London, June–October 1999, Pavillon des Arts, Paris, October 1999–January 2000, Musée Malraux, Le Havre, March–June (115).
2007
Hockney on Turner Watercolours, Tate Britain, London, June 2007–February 2008 (no number).
2017
Impression(s), soleil, MuMa-Musée d’art modern André Malraux, Le Havre, 10 September–8 October 2017 (2).
References
1833
Atlas, 15 December 1833, p.804.
1834
Arnold’s Magazine of the Fine Arts, January 1834, p.268.
1904
E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn eds., Library Edition: The Works of John Ruskin: Volume XIII: Turner: The Harbours of England; Catalogues and Notes, London 1904, pp.387, 615 no.160, as ‘Light Towers of the Héve (Vignette)’.
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.797, CCLIX 136, as ‘Light Towers of the Hève. (Vignette.)’.
1913
W[illiam] G[eorge] Rawlinson, The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., vol.II, London 1913, p.265 under no.453.
1977
Nicholas J. Alfrey, ‘Turner and the French Rivers’, unpublished MA Report, Courtauld Institute, University of London 1977, p.58.
1979
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.412 no.951, reproduced, as ‘Light-towers of the Heve’.
1981
Maurice Guillaud, Nicholas Alfrey, Andrew Wilton and others, Turner en France: aquarelles, peintures, dessins, gravures, carnets de croquis / Turner in France: Watercolours, Paintings, Drawings, Engravings, Sketchbooks, exhibition catalogue, Centre Culturel du Marais, Paris 1981, no.109, p.421, fig.970.
1987
William S. Rodner, ‘Turner and Steamboats on the Seine’, Turner Studies, vol.7, no.2, Winter 1987, pp.38–40, fig.3.
1990
Luke Herrmann, Turner Prints: The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, Oxford 1990, p.172.
1993
Dr Jan Piggott, Turner’s Vignettes, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1993, p.51 no.29, reproduced.
1995
Judy Egerton, Martin Wyld and Ashok Roy, Making & Meaning: Turner: The Fighting Temeraire, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery, London 1995, pp.51, 60, 61, 86, 127 note 70, p.135 no.41, pl.38 (colour).
1997
William S. Rodner, J.M.W. Turner: Romantic Painter of the Industrial Revolution, Berkeley and London 1997, pp.32–3.
1997
Charles Nugent and Melva Croal, Turner Watercolors from Manchester, exhibition catalogue, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis 1997, p.92 under no.57.
1999
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Seine, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1999, pp.69, 71, 81, 88, 94, 257 note 27, 273 no.115, fig.53 (colour).
2007
David Blayney Brown, Turner Watercolours, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, London 2007, p.15, reproduced.
2017
Annette Haudiquet and others, Impression(s), soleil, exhibition catalogue, MuMa-Musée d’art modern André Malraux, Le Havre, 2017 (p(p.50 (detail),) 65 no.2, reproduced in colour, p.220).
Engraved:
By John Cousen in 1833, published in 1834.
By John Cousen in 1833, published in 1834.
In this vignette watercolour, Turner evokes a moonlit view over sailing vessels beneath the two light-houses perched high on a cliff at the cape of La Hève, on the Seine Estuary just north of the port of Le Havre, in northern France. Turner conveys the scene with drama and delicacy. He exaggerates the height of the cliff for pictorial effect. Against the moonlight flooding the view, from the smaller dark boats in the foreground, fishermen draw in their nets. Behind these vessels, a graceful white sailing ship contrasts with a black smoky steamboat. This juxtaposition of sailboats and steamboats as symbols of old and new is a motif in Turner’s art. It is also presented in two other watercolours in this series, Between Quillebeuf and Villequier, c.1832 (Tate D24669; Turner Bequest CCLIX 104), Le Havre: Tour de François Ier, c.1832 (D24699; CCLIX 134) and most famously in the oil painting The Fighting ‘Temeraire’ of 1839 (Turner Bequest, National Gallery, London1).2
An engraving was made from the watercolour by Robert Wallace in 1833, as Light-Towers of the Heve (Tate impression T05593) as the frontispiece for the volume Wanderings by the Seine of 1834.3 The choice of this subject as the frontispiece may be a further indication of the importance of the sailing and steam vessel juxtaposition motif to Turner.
Turner made several preliminary studies for this design. Initial pencil sketches (Tate D24054–D24055; Turner Bequest CCLIV 87a, 88) are in his Seine and Paris sketchbook of 1832.4 There are also several colour studies (Tate D24566–D24567; Turner Bequest CCLIX 1, 2;5 and D24645; CCLIX 80).6
Verso:
Blank; at the time of writing the work was on loan and not available for inspection and confirmation.
Caroline South
November 2017
How to cite
Caroline South, ‘Light-Towers of la Hève (Vignette) c.1832 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2017, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2019, https://www