Joseph Mallord William Turner

Poole Harbour from East Hill, Corfe

1811

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Corfe to Dartmouth Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 170 × 209 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D08817
Turner Bequest CXXIV 10

Catalogue entry

The view is over the heathland north of the Purbeck Hills, across Poole Harbour towards Poole beyond the western tip of Brownsea Island in the centre, with the coast (now dominated by Bournemouth) stretching away to the north-east on the right. Turner’s vantage point is East Hill, just east of Corfe Castle, for which see under folio 17 recto (D08826). He may have followed the high chalk ridge as he sketched around the village or as he travelled on to his next destination, Swanage, recorded on folio 11 recto (D08818) and subsequently.

This drawing has been mentioned in relation to Turner’s watercolour design of Poole for the Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast 1 (see the 1811 tour introduction). However, the viewpoint is diametrically opposite to the sketches of the estuary he made in the Devonshire Coast, No.1 sketchbook, as he journeyed towards Corfe Castle from the north-east (Tate D08387, D08391; Turner Bequest CXXIII 14, 16), and CXXIII 14 alone forms the basis of the watercolour.

Shanes 1981, p.152; followed by Hanley 1992, p.20; see also English Watercolours and Drawings: Agnew’s 117th Annual Exhibition, exhibition catalogue, Thos Agnew & Sons, London 1990, p.37 under no.46; and [Evelyn Joll], Watercolours by J.M.W. Turner R.A. (1775 – 1851), exhibition catalogue, Thos Agnew & Sons, London 1994, p.14 under no.5.

Verso:

Blank; a tear has been repaired at the bottom right.

Matthew Imms
February 2011

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