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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > West Country 1811 > Devonshire Coast, No.1 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Coast towards Minehead and Dunster from near Watchet 1811

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Coast towards Minehead and Dunster from near Watchet’ 1811
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
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

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.353 no.469, reproduced.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Coast towards Minehead and Dunster from near Watchet 1811 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-coast-towards-minehead-and-dunster-from-near-watchet-r1137090, accessed 25 April 2024.