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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Ports of England c.1822-8 > Ports of England Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Castle on Cliff, probably Dover c.1822-3

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Castle on Cliff, probably Dover’ c.1822-3
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 13 Recto
Castle on Cliff, probably Dover c.1822–3
D17732
Turner Bequest CCII 13
Watercolour on paper, 257 x 178 mm
Watermarked ‘J wha | 18’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘13’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCII–13’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This colour study relates to another in this sketchbook of Dover Castle from Shakespeare Cliff (Tate D17737; Turner Bequest CCII 18). According to Ian Warrell both were made as preparatory stages in the design of Dover, from Shakespeare Cliff which was engraved by George Cooke in May 1826 as the penultimate plate for the Southern Coast series (see Tate impressions T04424, T05246–T05251, T06000).1
Turner’s employment of layers of muted blue and yellow wash for the sky lends it a prismatic effect. The foreground is an array of quickly wrought strokes, dashes and daubs of wash in grey, ochre, and red. The band of dilute blue representing the sea gives the impression of a stretch of beach beyond.
1
Warrell 1991, p.35, no.17.
Verso:
Blank

Alice Rylance-Watson
March 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Castle on Cliff, probably Dover c.1822–3 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-castle-on-cliff-probably-dover-r1148302, accessed 19 April 2024.