Joseph Mallord William Turner

Rocks on the Beach at Bude, Looking towards Lower Sharpnose Point

1811

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment
Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Cornwall and Devon Sketchbook [pseudo-Finberg CXXV a]
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 140 × 215 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D41350
Turner Bequest CXXV a 68

Catalogue entry

Like the views on folios 40 recto and 63 recto (D41318, D41345), this drawing appears to show the jagged sandstone rocks at the north end of Bude’s beach, looking north along the Devon coast towards Lower Sharpnose Point; the setting and possible related works are discussed under the first sketch mentioned above. There is a separate detail of convoluted strata at the top right. For other views of Bude, see under folio 35 recto (D41311).
As discussed in the introduction, the pages of this ‘sketchbook’ appear to have originally been loose sheets, and are not recorded in Finberg’s 1909 Inventory of the Bequest, although he subsequently noted the subject as ‘Rocky coast’ in a manuscript listing,1 as did C.F. Bell in his own notes.2 Figures usually corresponding to Finberg’s MS catalogue page numbers, which differ from Bell’s sequence, are inscribed on the verso of most sheets.
1
A.J. Finberg, MS addenda, [circa 1928–39], tipped into a copy of his A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, Tate Britain Prints and Drawings Room, vol.I, opposite p.356, as CXXV(a) 70.
2
C.F. Bell, MS addenda, [after 1928], tipped into a copy of Finberg 1909, Tate Britain Prints and Drawings Room, vol.I, p.356B, as CXXVa 68.
Technical notes:
The sheet is slightly wrinkled, possibly as a result of exposure to damp.
Verso:
Blank, save for inscription by Edwin Fagg in pencil ‘170 | 70’ bottom right. There are glue stains at the corners of the sheet.

Matthew Imms
July 2011

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