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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Two West Country Landscapes 1811

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 251 Verso:
Two West Country Landscapes 1811
D08803
Turner Bequest CXXIII 248a
Pencil on white wove writing paper, 75 x 117 mm
Inscribed by Turner with notes in pencil (see main catalogue entry) on right, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The following notes (written from the top of the page with the book turned vertically) appear on the right of the landscape sketches:
Upright size      5½ by 7 
Coast             5½ by 8½ 
Dewint size       4¿ 8½ 
There are similar figures set out towards the front of the sketchbook, on folio 4 verso (D08369), which are ‘presumably paper or frame dimensions’1 in inches, approximately equating with the sizes of the Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast of England watercolours and engravings resulting from Turner’s 1811 West Country expedition (see the introduction to the tour). Peter De Wint was also commissioned to make views for the series (Tate impressions: T05267, T05268, T05300, T05301, T05307, T05308, T05312, T05313, T05318, T05319, T05424, T05425), although the significance of the precise variation in his dimensions is unclear.
With the page turned horizontally, the landscapes are one above the other and roughly separated by pencil lines, with another separating them from the inscriptions to the right. Both feature hills and buildings, perhaps from the latter stages of the West Country tour. The terrain in the upper sketch appears similar to that in the full-page view on folio 252 recto opposite (D08804; CXXIII 249).

Matthew Imms
June 2011

1
Howard J.M. Hanley, Turner in Dorset: Images from the Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast of England, exhibition catalogue, Mulberry Gallery, Weymouth Library 1992, p.2.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Two West Country Landscapes 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-two-west-country-landscapes-r1137282, accessed 29 March 2024.