Joseph Mallord William Turner

Cottages near the Shore, with Distant Cliffs

1796–7

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Drawings Related to the ‘Studies near Brighton’ and ‘Wilson’ Sketchbooks, and Other Subjects
Medium: Graphite and watercolour on paper
Dimensions: Support: 197 × 277 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D00886
Turner Bequest XXXIII O

Catalogue entry

This subject was identifed by Finberg as ‘Shakespeare Cliff, Folkestone’ but, as the Turner scholar C.F. Bell pointed out,1 this is incorrect. Although catalogued here with drawings thought to have been executed at Margate, it may show the coast of Sussex near Brighton. It has much in common both in palette and in treatment with two larger watercolours of Brighthelmstone (later Brighton) (Victoria and Albert Museum, London 2 and private collection 3).

The title is crossed out in Bell’s copy of Finberg 1909, I, p.67 (Tate Britain Prints and Drawings Room).

Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.315 no.147, reproduced.

Susan Sloman, Watercolours & Drawings: Agnew’s 130th Annual Exhibition, exhibition catalogue, presented by Andrew Wyld for Thos. Agnew & Sons, London 2003, p.[26] no.31, reproduced in colour p.[27] and on front cover, as ‘A View of Brighton from the West’; not in Wilton 1979.

Verso:

Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
January 2013

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