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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > West Country 1811 > Corfe to Dartmouth Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Charmouth Beach with Cain's Folly and Golden Cap 1811

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Charmouth Beach with Cain's Folly and Golden Cap’ 1811
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 29 Recto:
Charmouth Beach with Cain’s Folly and Golden Cap 1811
D08840
Turner Bequest CXXIV 29
Pencil on white wove paper, 170 x 209 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Bridport’ bottom left
Stamped in black ‘CXXIV – 29’ top left, upside down
Blind-stamped from verso with Turner Bequest monogram top left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Although Turner inscribed his drawing ‘Bridport’, Howard Hanley seems correct in his description of the viewpoint as the coast at Charmouth, looking south-east along the beach towards the hills of Cain’s Folly and Golden Cap1 in the direction of Bridport, which is about seven miles away.
Butlin and Joll noted William Hoade’s unpublished identification of the unfinished painting of a Rocky Coast (Tate N05499)2 as a view of Bridport, which they associated with the present drawing and the watercolour Bridport, Dorsetshire of about 1818 (Bury Art Gallery and Museum),3 engraved in 1820 for the Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast of England.4 However, the direct source for the latter is the small study in the contemporary Devonshire Coast, No.1 sketchbook (Tate D08452; Turner Bequest CXXIII 47a), while the cliffs shown in a subsequent slight drawing (Tate D08455; Turner Bequest CXXIII 49) may be those at Charmouth.
The drawing on the verso (D08841) shows the view in the opposite direction, towards Lyme Regis.

Matthew Imms
February 2011

1
Hanley 1992, p.32; compare modern photograph, ibid., ‘Cat.64’.
2
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.162–3 no.273, pl.275.
3
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.353 no.465, reproduced.
4
Butlin and Joll 1984, p.163.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Charmouth Beach with Cain’s Folly and Golden Cap 1811 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-charmouth-beach-with-cains-folly-and-golden-cap-r1137321, accessed 19 May 2024.