Joseph Mallord William Turner Quillebeuf c.1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
Quillebeuf
c.1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Quillebeuf c.1832
D24668
Turner Bequest CCLIX 103
Turner Bequest CCLIX 103
Gouache and watercolour on blue paper, 140 x 189 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1904
National Gallery, London, various dates to at least 1904 (127, as ‘Quilleboeuf’).
1974
Turner 1775–1851, Royal Academy, London, November 1974–March 1975 (398).
1953
British Painters in France: Les Peintres anglais en France, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, May–June 1953 (148).
1972
J.M.W. Turner: Gemälde – Aquarelle, Nationalgalerie Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, September–November 1972 (84).
1973
Turner {1775 / 1851}: Desenhos, aguarelas e óleos / Drawings, Watercolours and Oil Paintings, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, June–July 1973 (31).
1978
Търнър, Shipka Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria, April [?–May] 1978, Belgrade, Serbia [former Yugoslavia], May, Muzeul de Arte al RS [Republica Socialista] Romania, Bucharest, June–July (45).
1981
J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) / ΤΖ.Μ.Γ. Τερνερ (1775–1851), National Pinakothiki, Athens, January–March 1981 (43).
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 (111).
1982
J.M.W. Turner Watercolors from the British Museum, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, March–May 1982, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, May–July (59).
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 (122).
2011
William Turner: Maler der Elemente / Turner and the Elements, Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg, June–September 2011, Muzeum Narodowe, Krakow, October–January 2012, Turner Contemporary, Margate, January–May 2012 (28).
References
1834
Arnold’s Magazine of the Fine Arts, January 1834, pp.269–70.
1903
E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn eds., Library Edition: The Works of John Ruskin: Volume III: Modern Painters: Volume I: Containing Parts I and II: Of General Principles; and Of Truth, London 1903, p.566.
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, 613 no.127, as ‘Quilleboeuf.’.
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.794, CCLIX 103, as ‘Quilleboeuf’.
1913
W[illiam] G[eorge] Rawlinson, The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., vol.II, London 1913, p.270 under no.471.
1953
Denys Sutton, British Painters in France: Les Peintres anglais en France, exhibition catalogue, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol 1953, [p.24], no.148 as ‘Quilleboeuf’.
1972
Werner Haftmann, Andrew Wilton, Henning Bock and others, J.M.W. Turner: Gemälde Aquarelle, exhibition catalogue, Nationalgalerie Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, September–November 1972, p.79 no.84, reproduced Abb.22.
1973
Norman Reid, Andrew Wilton and Luke Herrmann, Turner {1775 / 1851}: Desenhos, aguarelas e óleos / Drawings, Watercolours and Oil Paintings, exhibition catalogue, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon 1973, p.27 no.31, reproduced.
1829
Martin Butlin, Andrew Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, pp.119 no.398, as ‘Quilleboeuf c.1829’, 136 under no.491.
1978
Timothy Clifford, Търнър, exhibition catalogue, Shipka Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria 1978, p.[25] no.45, reproduced.
1979
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.414 no.969, reproduced.
1981
Dimitrios Papastamos, John Gage and Lindsay Stainton, J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) / ΤΖ.Μ.Γ. Τερνερ (1775–1851), exhibition catalogue, National Pinakothiki, Athens 1981, pp.[119] reproduced, as ‘Quilleboeuf’, 123 no.43.
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.111, p.421, fig.708.
1984
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.203 under no.253.
1986
Haruki Yaegashi, Martin Butlin, Evelyn Joll and others, Turner Exhibition, exhibition catalogue, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo 1986, p.108 no.32.
1990
Luke Herrmann, Turner Prints: The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, Oxford 1990, p.175.
1995
Judy Egerton, Martin Wyld and Ashok Roy, Making & Meaning: Turner: The Fighting Temeraire, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery, London 1995, pp.62, 127 note 79.
1999
Ian Warrell, Turner on the Seine, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1999, pp.38, 69, 137, 146, 257 note 27, 269 under no.57, 274 no.122, fig.106 (colour).
2003
Ian Warrell, Nicola Moorby, Sarah Taft and others, O mar e a luz: Aguarelas de Turner na colecção da Tate, exhibition catalogue, Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon 2003, p.148 no.38, fig.23.
2011
Inés Richter-Musso, Ortrud Westheider and others, William Turner. Maler der Elemente, exhibition catalogue, Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg 2011, p.135 no.28, reproduced.
2011
Inés Richter-Musso Ortrud Westheider and others, Turner and the Elements, exhibition catalogue, Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg 2011, p.135 no.28, reproduced.
Engraved:
By Robert Brandard in 1833, published in 1834.
By Robert Brandard in 1833, published in 1834.
In this watercolour, Turner depicts a large wave, rearing beneath the town of Quillebeuf, located on the River Seine in northern France. The town is identifiable by its Church of Notre-Dame de Bon-Port, and lighthouse, in the background. Art historians Judy Egerton and others explain that this stretch of the river Seine was strewn with hazards, including a tidal wave known locally as ‘barre’,1 also portrayed in Turner’s oil painting The Mouth of the Seine, Quilleboeuf (Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon),2 exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1833. The wave surges powerfully in the foreground, filling a third of the whole image. Turner works washes of green watercolour against the blue background paper to evoke the colour of the sea. He uses streaks of blue, black and brown gouache against the blue paper to convey the body and force of the wave, and white gouache to depict crashing foam. Further movement is suggested by the angle of the buoy, bobbing in the water at lower left, and the birds circling it.
Pencil sketches (Tate D24033; Turner Bequest CCLIV 77, in particular the bottom sketch of D24038; CCLIV 79a,3 and the central sketch of D24034; CCLIV 77a4) from Turner’s Seine and Paris sketchbook, dating from 1832, provided bases for this watercolour, although as art historian Ian Warrell points out, none anticipate the composition of the watercolour exactly.5
An engraving was made from this watercolour by Robert Brandard in 1833, as Quilleboeuf (Tate impressions T05610 and T06242), for the volume Wanderings by the Seine of 1834.6 The white seagulls circling the water in the sky at far left, and the white windmill on the hill at far right, are accentuated in the engraving.
Verso:
Previous records note ‘inscribed in pencil “9 | Quillebeuf”’ but the work has since been mounted so that the back is not to be seen. The reverse of the mount has the words ‘No image on the back’. However, there is no comment about the inscription.
Caroline South
November 2017
How to cite
Caroline South, ‘Quillebeuf 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