'Lulworth Cove, with the Isle of Portland Beyond', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Lulworth Cove, with the Isle of Portland Beyond

From Vale of Heathfield Sketchbook

Turner Bequest CXXXVII

Date ?1811

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 181 x 228 mm

Collection

Tate

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

Reference

D10237

Turner Bequest CXXXVII 21

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

Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the Vale of Heathfield Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 22 Recto:

Lulworth Cove, with the Isle of Portland Beyond ?1811

D10237
Turner Bequest CXXXVII 21

Pencil on white wove paper, 181 x 228 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘21’ bottom right (now very faint)
Blind-stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXVII 21’ bottom right

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

Turner’s view is from the beach on the east side of Lulworth Cove, Dorset, the only point inside the cove from which the Isle of Portland is visible on the horizon to the south-west, through the seaward entrance. This is a slighter version in the Corfe to Dartmouth sketchbook (Tate D08830, D08831; Turner Bequest CXXIV 20a, 21) which includes other drawings of the site from Turner’s 1811 tour of the West Country, and it is likely that the present sketch was made on the same occasion.

There is a view from nearby on folio 23 recto (D10238; CXXXVII 22), and a further Dorset subject, Christchurch Priory (then in Hampshire), on folio 5 recto (D10310; CXXXVII 67). Lulworth Cove is the first of the sites in Turner’s West Country topographical notes on folio 1 recto (D10206).

Technical notes:

There are traces of ochre watercolour on the lower edge, left of centre, and of yellow and blue along the right edge.

Verso:

Blank

Matthew Imms
May 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.