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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Second Italian Tour 1828-9 > Marseilles to Genoa Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Coastline near Cannes and Antibes, from the Sea 1828

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Coastline near Cannes and Antibes, from the Sea’ 1828
Folio 2 Recto:
Coastline near Cannes and Antibes, from the Sea 1828
D21135
Turner Bequest CCXXXI 2
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 174 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Cannes’ and ‘Antibes’ within sketches
Inscribed in red ink ‘2’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXI 2’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As Turner’s annotations suggest, these two sketches, made with the page turned horizontally, depict views of coastline from the sea in the south of France, respectively near Cannes (top), and Antibes (bottom). The artist apparently travelled by boat for part of the journey between Marseille and Nice, sketching the changing profile of the mountainous Estérel coast as it passed before him.1 The upper vista depicts a distant view of Cannes from the south-west, while the lower records a stretch of coastline with Antibes on the far right and the Préalpes de Grasse in the background, as noted by geographer and Turer researcher Roland Courtot.2

Nicola Moorby
March 2017

Revised by Hannah Kaspar
November 2024

1
Guillaud, Alfrey, Wilton and others 1981, p.285.
2
Roland Courtot, ‘Les Carnets de William Turner: Recherches d’identification et de localisation des dessins’, unpublished research notes, Université de Provence à Aix, April 2008, p.2, as ‘Cannes’ (shared with former Tate cataloguer Nicola Moorby in email correspondence at that date).

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Coastline near Cannes and Antibes, from the Sea 1828’, catalogue entry, March 2017, revised by Hannah Kaspar, November 2024, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2025, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/coastline-near-cannes-and-antibes-from-the-sea-r1209813, accessed 15 April 2025.