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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Alderney Island; Fortifications, ?Channel Islands or Normandy ?1832

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 46 Verso:
Alderney Island; Fortifications, ?Channel Islands or Normandy ?1832
D23606
Turner Bequest CCLII 46a
Pencil on white wove paper, 187 x 114 mm
Partial watermark ‘J. JELL | 18’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Alderney’, ‘w w w ES’ top left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned vertically, Turner filled this page with small sketches of distant coastal land-masses. The bottom half of the page depicts the profiles of overlapping cliffs and headlands of a type that abounds in the Channel Islands and the Normandy coast. The island at the top left-hand corner of the page is identified by Turner’s note as Alderney, which lies within sight of Guernsey’s east coast. The two sketches immediately below depict a fortification with towers overlooking an expanse of water.

John Chu
April 2014

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Alderney Island; Fortifications, ?Channel Islands or Normandy ?1832 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-alderney-island-fortifications-channel-islands-or-normandy-r1175098, accessed 29 March 2024.