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

With the page turned horizontally, the view is northwards from Boulogne’s harbour, across the channel at the mouth of the River Liane, running north-west between the piers in the foreground. At the end of the western arm, towards the left-hand edge, is the telegraph tower at about the point where the Capitainerie tower now stands on reclaimed land above the Quai de l’Amiral Huguet. Towards the right, the low arcaded building below the cliffs is the bathing establishment overlooking the beach, on the site of the Nausicaa Centre National de la Mer aquarium. It and the piers are shown from the north on folio 8 verso (D19416), and the building is shown in detail from a different angle in an undated watercolour of the period by Captain John Duncan King (1789–1863), inscribed ‘Boulogne sur Mer’ by the artist’s son or daughter (private collection).1

Among other harbour views there, much the same prospect is shown on Tate D19327 (Turner Bequest CCXIV 245a) in the contemporary Holland sketchbook. The larger scale and slightly elevated viewpoint here allows for the suggestion of figures and perhaps bathing machines (see also folio 19 verso; D19434) dotted across the beach; in the distance, hesitantly indicated in two positions on rocks just off the coast, is the lost Fort de la Crèche, also seen on D19416, under which other Boulogne subjects are noted.

Although the two halves are not continuous, this view is effectively carried on to the right on folio 13 verso opposite (D19423), turning east to the harbour, with the elevated old town on the skyline beyond.

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