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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and French ... > Holland Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dover Harbour, with Shakespeare Cliff and the Western Heights Beyond 1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dover Harbour, with Shakespeare Cliff and the Western Heights Beyond’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 262 Recto:
Dover Harbour, with Shakespeare Cliff and the Western Heights Beyond 1825
D19360
Turner Bequest CCXIV 262
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 155 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘62’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXIV – 262’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, as identified in general terms by Finberg,1 this two-part view is westward towards Dover Harbour, with the defences on the Western Heights above the town in the main view, which is continued to the left above, including the distinctive profile of Shakespeare Cliff; see under folio 1 verso (D18842) for other views of it in this sketchbook and elsewhere.
The viewpoint is likely the beach below where Marine Parade and the coastal dual carriageway now run in parallel west of the Eastern Docks, along the cliffs south of Dover Castle. The buildings at the bottom right (including a castellated feature) appear to be in the foreground of the main view, and may be those shown again on the verso (D19361), where the castle’s cliff defences are shown immediately above; the subjects on the two pages are thus more or less continuous.
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, see under folio 2 recto (D18843). Compare a page of views around the harbour in the contemporary Holland, Meuse and Cologne sketchbook (Tate D19412; Turner Bequest CCXV 6a).

Matthew Imms
September 2020

1
See Finberg 1909, II, p.661.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Dover Harbour, with Shakespeare Cliff and the Western Heights Beyond 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-harbour-with-shakespeare-cliff-and-the-western-heights-r1202712, accessed 23 May 2025.