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

With the page turned horizontally, Dover Castle is shown, as Finberg recognised,1 to the north-east beyond the spire of St Mary’s Church, with cliffs below towards the South Foreland. As with the sketches on adjacent pages, similar prospects are obtainable from the elevated coastal path around the Western Heights. In this instance, the alignment of the spire and the towers below the keep indicate a viewpoint east of the Drop Redoubt, while the comparable sketch on folio 271 recto (D19378) seems to have been from further to the right, with more of the cliffs showing in the distance.

This is among nearly forty consecutive pages towards the end of this sketchbook devoted to aspects of Dover and its castle (folios 253 verso–272 verso; D19343–D19381). For Turner’s many other views there in this sketchbook and elsewhere, see under folio 2 recto (D18843).