Joseph Mallord William Turner

Houses on a Channel Cliff with a Gorge

1845

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment
Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Dieppe and Kent Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 86 × 111 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D35501
Turner Bequest CCCLXI 8

Catalogue entry

The main view is inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, and shows houses on the skyline above what seem to be cliffs with a gulley or gorge between them, presumably on the coast. The view on the verso and folio 9 recto (D35502–D35503), which Finberg suggested as Folkestone1 (see folio 5 verso; D35496), but this is unconfirmed.
Towards the bottom right is the inverted continuation of sea cliffs from folio 7 verso opposite (D35500). See the sketchbook’s Introduction for the many slight views scattered through it.
1
See Finberg 1909, II, p.1171.
Technical notes:
There is some brown staining at the gutter, possibly indicating water damage in the 1928 Tate flood.

Matthew Imms
September 2016

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