Joseph Mallord William Turner

Leading on from the facing page on folio 55 verso (D17297), here Turner continues a list of tightly packed sketches of headland topography. Made with the sketchbook turned vertically, and with the gutter at the top, these drawings are copied from The Little Sea Torch, an illustrated maritime text by Richard Bougard, translated from the French by J.T. Serres and published in London in 1801.1 Turner has transcribed pictures from this book onto nine pages in the current sketchbook. For a full list of these, see the entry for Folio 55 recto (D17296). For more detailed information about the 1801 publication, and an interrogation of Turner’s use of it, see the sketchbook Introduction.

At the top of this page, almost swallowed by the gutter in places, is the inscription ‘Praul and Start’, followed by ‘ENE’ in the top right corner. ‘Praul’ refers to Prawle Point in south west Devon. In his entry for the page, Finberg corrects Turner’s misspelling.2 In fact, the mistake was inherited from The Little Sea Torch, in the title given to the second engraving on plate 14, the source of Turner’s rendering: ‘Praul Point, & the Start, E.N.E., 2 or 3 Miles dis^t’.3 ‘Start’ refers to Start Point, also in Devon, which marks the most southern limit of Start Bay. ‘ENE’ means ‘East-northeast’, and refers to the mid-point on a compass between due east and northeast, or 67° 30' clockwise from north.

This first drawing on the page faithfully transcribes the printed reference diagram of Prawle and Start points. The identification is doubly confirmed by the distinctive Horse’s Head rock at the tip of the peninsula on the left. Turner’s pencil is soft but the lines are sharp in places, particularly where the sketch describes the treacherous lip of the cliff top. A second drawing beneath the first repeats the same subject matter, emulating engraving 4 on plate 14 of The Little Sea Torch, entitled ‘Praul Point, E.N.E. 1 Mile dis^t’.4 Again, the Horse’s Head at Prawle Point forms a distinctive feature on the right hand side, towards the centre of Turner’s page.