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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dover Castle from the South-West, with Cottages and a Breakwater in the Foreground 1825

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 261 Verso:
Dover Castle from the South-West, with Cottages and a Breakwater in the Foreground 1825
D19359
Turner Bequest CCXIV 261a
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 155 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, as recognised by Finberg,1 Dover Castle is seen beyond a wooden breakwater and houses above the beach. Later developments make it difficult to establish whether these elements form a continuous view, as the castle seems to be on an exaggerated scale or nearer than in reality. The precise details of the towers and walls, with the Constable’s Gate and Queen Mary’s Tower below the keep, indicate a view from the south-west, which would be along where Marine Parade runs today, but trees now obscure most of the castle from this close. Compare the wider view from the harbour, further off in the same direction, on folio 256 verso (D19349).
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).

Matthew Imms
September 2020

1
See Finberg 1909, II, p.661.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Dover Castle from the South-West, with Cottages and a Breakwater in the Foreground 1825 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2020, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-dover-castle-from-the-south-west-with-cottages-and-a-r1202711, accessed 20 August 2025.