J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Northern France 1832 > Guernsey Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Buildings on a Headland, ?English Channel ?1832

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Buildings on a Headland, ?English Channel’ ?1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 2 Recto:
Buildings on a Headland, ?English Channel ?1832
D23527
Turner Bequest CCLII 2
Pencil, watercolour, and white chalk on white wove paper, 114 x 187 mm
Partial watermark ‘YMAN | 28’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘2’ bottom right
Stamped in black ink ‘CCLII – 2’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner prepared this page with a grey watercolour wash then worked up a pencil and white chalk sketch of a settlement overlooking an expanse of water. Short vertical pencil marks around the scene record the presence of ships’ masts. The long sweeping pencil marks to the right suggest a rocky cliff, perhaps locating this scene on the coast of the English Channel near Le Havre, Southampton or on the Channel Islands, all of which feature on various pages of the sketchbook.

John Chu
April 2014

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Buildings on a Headland, ?English Channel ?1832 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-buildings-on-a-headland-english-channel-r1175019, accessed 25 April 2024.