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

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

?A Ruined Castle on a Low Coastal Cliff 1827

D40309

Chalk and pencil on blue wove paper, 142 x 193 mm
Remains of white mounting paper at corners
Inscribed in red ink ‘437’ bottom left

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

This is among dozens of blue paper studies presumably made in connection with the Cowes Regatta events in the late summer of 1827; see the Introduction to this subsection for other generic harbour and coastal scenes.

The present sketch, on the verso of D20898 (Turner Bequest CCXXVIII 38), is not specifically mentioned in Finberg’s 1909 Inventory.1 It appears to show white chalk cliffs, appropriately highlighted using the same medium, with a ruined castle and other buildings, and the dark hull of a boat in the bay below. Assuming it is a topographical view rather than a compositional study, the subject remains unidentified, and may not show the Isle of Wight.