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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Northern France 1832 > Guernsey Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Caskets; Channel Islands ?1832

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Caskets; Channel Islands’ ?1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 92 Recto:
The Caskets; Channel Islands ?1832
D23697
Turner Bequest CCLII 92
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 187 mm
Partial watermark ‘J. JELL | 18’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Sark’, ‘Herm’, ‘Jethoo’ top centre, ‘Guernsey’ towards top right, ‘Casket’ centre, inverted
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘92’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLII – 92’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner worked at least four distant views of the Channel Islands’ various land-masses and rocky coastal formations onto this page, some of which he identified with rapid notations. The land-masses depicted along the top of the page are identified as the neighbouring islands of Sark, Herm, Jethou, and Guernsey. Inverted in relation to the sketchbook as foliated, the spiky rows of protruding rocks immediately below are also identified by a note as the treacherous reefs near Alderney known as The Caskets. 1 For the recurrence of this geological phenomenon, see the listing under the entry for folio 90 recto (D23693; Turner Bequest CCLII 90).

John Chu
April 2014

1
J.T. Cochrane, A Guide to the Island of Guernsey, St Peter Port 1826, p.138.

How to cite

John Chu, ‘The Caskets; Channel Islands ?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-the-caskets-channel-islands-r1175189, accessed 23 April 2024.