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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Spring Tour of Northern France 1845 > Boulogne Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Cliffs at Wimereux 1845

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Cliffs at Wimereux’ 1845
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 2 Recto:
Cliffs at Wimereux 1845
D35404
Turner Bequest CCCLVIII 3
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 230 x 326 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Vim’ towards bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘3’ bottom right
Blind stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCLVIII 3’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The inscription ‘Vim’ is an abbreviation of the phonetic spelling of Wimereux and locates this view some three miles up the coast from Boulogne. From a low vantage point across a churning sea are seen, as if from a boat, Wimereux’s sloping, striated cliffs. Above this, Napoleonic ‘Martello’ towers punctuate the skyline.1
Highly saturated, calligraphic strokes of blue describe the crashing of surf onto rocks and the peeping of foliage over the cliffs’ edge. Turner has paid particular attention to capturing the effect of geological strata seen in wet conditions, with parallel strokes of ochre, yellow, and red permitted to bleed and feather into one another.

John Chu
November 2013

1
J. Brunet, New Guide to Boulogne-sur-Mer, 3rd ed., Boulogne 1840, p.25.

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Cliffs at Wimereux 1845 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-cliffs-at-wimereux-r1173505, accessed 17 July 2024.