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

This page is not recorded in Finberg’s Turner Bequest Inventory.1 Turner has bisected the page both horizontally and vertically, using the quadrants to show related views of the steep valley of the Dart. At the top left Dartmouth Castle is seen to the south from the Kingswear side, across the estuary; there is a similar view taking up the whole of folio 55 recto (D09737). At the bottom left, the view of Dartmouth to the north-west from Kingswear is similar to the full-page views on folios 59 recto and 60 recto (D09743, D09744); the sketch at the bottom right appears to be a variation, concentrating on the foreground.

The study at the top right provided the overall basis for the watercolour Dartmouth Cove of about 1826 (Morgan Library & Museum, New York),2 engraved in 1827 for the series Picturesque Views in England and Wales. The full-page drawings on folios 53 recto and 54 recto (D09735, D09736) have been tentatively linked to the watercolour,3 but here the trees, hills and castle in the view south from the Kingswear side of the Dart are in precisely the same alignment, although there is no indication of the lively party of sailors and women which dominates the foreground in the finished design. There is a full-page drawing from a similar viewpoint on folio 58 recto opposite (D09742).

This is one of a sequence of views around Dartmouth and the Dart Estuary between folios 50 recto and 60 recto (D09730, D09744); for sketches made in 1811, see under the first of these.

Technical notes:

There is brown staining to the left-hand edge, also evident on the recto (D09740).