'A West Country Harbour with Shipping and a Tower on the Coast Beyond', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

A West Country Harbour with Shipping and a Tower on the Coast Beyond

From Devonshire Coast, No.1 Sketchbook

Turner Bequest CXXIII

Date 1811

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 75 x 117 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Reference

D08544

Turner Bequest CXXIII 92 a

View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms

Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the Devonshire Coast, No.1 Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 95 Verso

A West Country Harbour with Shipping and a Tower on the Coast Beyond 1811

D08544
Turner Bequest CXXIII 92a

Pencil on white wove printing paper, 75 x 117 mm

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

What appears to be a tower with three window apertures stands below rocky cliffs beyond which a coastline stretches into the distance. In the foreground are other buildings and the masts of ships. The subject remains unidentified, and does not, for example, appear to be Kingswear Castle on the Dart Estuary, as shown on folio 3 recto (D08366) and elsewhere, as that building is further from the coast itself relative to the one shown here.

Technical notes:

There is a prominent diagonal fold towards the lower left, apparently a production fault occurring between the printing of the text on the recto (D08543) and the binding of the leaf – part of the text is obscured but the edges are trimmed flush.

Matthew Imms
June 2011

Read this catalogue entry in full

This catalogue entry is part of: David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, December 2012.