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

The page contains two sketches, both drawn horizontally. The bottom sketch is drawn with the page turned upside down, and continues onto folio 4 verso opposite (D23706). Finberg identified these sketches as being of ‘Harfleur’,1 and the location has been confirmed.2 The upper sketch is of the ruined rounded towers of the Porte de Rouen (Gate of Rouen), which constituted part of the ancient town fortifications3 (for further information on Harfleur, see under folio 1 recto, D23699). The church tower on the right is identifiable by its shape as that of the Church of Saint-Martin (for further information on the church, see under folio 2 verso, D23702). The bottom sketch is a view of Harfleur with the Church of Saint-Martin on the right and the Seine estuary, on which the town is located, winding away into the distance behind.

Art historian Ian Warrell refers4 to this page, presumably this bottom sketch, as one of the preliminary studies Turner used for his later watercolour, Harfleur, c.1832 (Tate D24667; Turner Bequest CCLIX 102),5 engraved for Turner’s Annual Tour – Wanderings by the Seine, 1834 (Tate impressions: T05596, T06225). However, much more of the watercolour, for example similar composition, viewpoint, and objects in the foreground, is taken from the other sketch also noted by Warrell, on the verso (D23708).