Joseph Mallord William Turner

The Line of Cliffs between Margate and Reculver, with Reculver Church in the Distance

1796

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment
Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Studies near Brighton Sketchbook
Medium
Dimensions
Support: 108 × 126 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D00731
Turner Bequest XXX 2

Catalogue entry

The subject of this slight sketch is indisputable, and proves (see the sketchbook’s Introduction) that Turner’s title for the book does not define its contents at all precisely. Another view of Reculver occurs in the Wilson sketchbook (Tate D01231; Turner Bequest XXXVII 114). The two towers are of the twelfth century, and were at the west end of the Saxon St Mary’s Abbey, founded by Abbot Bassa in the seventh century. The Abbey was largely demolished in 1809, though the towers were rebuilt in a Picturesque Gothic manner to constitute a prominent sea-mark on the north Kent coast.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
May 2011

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