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

As Turner left Marseille behind (see between folios 53 recto and 66 recto: D21092–D21114 and D21117–D21118; Turner Bequest CCXXX 52–63 and 64a–65), he journeyed east towards northern Italy. En route, he visited the port city of Toulon, a location possibly confirmed by his inscription halfway down the page. The site of a significant naval arsenal and shipyard since the late sixteenth century, the city’s fortifications were much expanded by the time of Turner’s visit in 1828, with a larger port and shipyard built under Louis XIV in the seventeenth century.

The four studies on this page are inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation. The uppermost study is a harbour scene dominated by a single sailing vessel, beyond which are further boat masts. The two studies beneath presumably connect to form one extended vista; annotated ‘1’ and ‘2’, they indicate how Turner responded innovatively to the spatial restrictions of a pocket-sized sketchbook. The upper section depicts the Tour Royale, a round tower built in the early sixteenth-century to defend the city’s port. Beneath is another of the city’s fortified towers, likely the circular Fort Balaguier. The swift vertical lines towards the bottom denote boat masts in the harbour. The distant mountain range beyond indicates that Turner found time in Toulon to tour the harbour and compose studies from out to sea, facing north.

As foliated, this subject is out of sequence with the overall itinerary embodied by this sketchbook (see the Introduction), which begins near Lyon and ends near Toulon. Further studies of Toulon can be found intermittently between folios 65 recto and 74 recto (D21116, D21121, D21123, D21128–D21129; Turner Bequest CCXXX 64, 66a, 68, 72a and 73).