'The Coast towards Minehead and Dunster from near Watchet', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

The Coast towards Minehead and Dunster from near Watchet

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

D08613

Turner Bequest CXXIII 129

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 132 Recto:

The Coast towards Minehead and Dunster from near Watchet 1811

D08613
Turner Bequest CXXIII 129

Pencil on white wove writing paper, 75 x 117 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘129’ top left, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CXXIII – 129’ top right, ascending vertically

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

The view appears to be to the west from the road above Doniford, looking along Bridgwater Bay towards the hills above Minehead and Dunster on the horizon, with Watchet beyond the headland in the middle distance, possibly with masts indicated in the harbour.

There is a similar view on folio 213 verso (D08747; CXXIII 210a); another made west of Watchet, on folio 165 verso (D08672; CXXIII 162a), is closest to the watercolour of the subject (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight),1 engraved in 1821 for the Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast of England. For other views of Dunster, see under folio 19 verso (D08398); for Watchet see folio 173 verso (D08687; CXXIII 170a); and for Minehead see under folio 4 recto (D08368).

Matthew Imms
June 2011

Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.353 no.469, reproduced.

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.