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

The page contains a sketch, drawn horizontally, of a rounded and crenellated building. Finberg recorded this sketch as ‘Tower on River’,1 but the location of Le Havre has been confirmed.2 Turner concentrates on the shape of this building as well as the general shapes of the buildings to the right and his depiction renders the structure identifiable as the Tower of François I at Le Havre, located by the sea. (For a similar viewpoint to that of this sketch, see a later painting by the French artist Eugène Boudin, Le Havre, la Tour François Ier, 1852–5.3)

The Tower of François I at Le Havre was a defensive structure located on the north of the entrance to the port. The tower was constructed from 1517 onwards, and first completed in 1520. It was used to control access to the port, but later when considered militarily ineffective and an obstacle to navigation, it was destroyed in 1861.4

The loose swirling strokes on the right of the sketch are likely to indicate greenery to the side of the buildings. The long horizontal lines on the left with the rounded and perpendicular strokes below them may denote masts and ships on the water, and the curve to the left may indicate the sweep of the quay.