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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Wales and Isle of Wight 1795-1800 > Isle of Wight Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Rocky Cliffs with a Small Waterfall 1795

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Rocky Cliffs with a Small Waterfall’ 1795
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 5 Recto:
Rocky Cliffs with a Small Waterfall 1795
D00411
Turner Bequest XXIV 5
Pencil on white wove paper, 264 x 204 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘4’ bottom right (now very faint)
Stamped in black ‘XXIV 5’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg suggests that the subject may be St Giles’s Hill, from which a popular view of Winchester from the east was obtainable. St Giles’s Hill is now Telegraph or Magdalen Hill. However, the conformation of the rocks suggests a coastal cliff, and this may be a sketch made later in the tour, perhaps at Blackgang or in another of the dramatic chines along the south coast of the Isle of Wight (see folios 30 recto, 31 recto, 36 recto; D00437, D00438, D00443; Turner Bequest XXIV 29, 30, 35) on a leaf inadvertently left blank, rather than the record of an excursion to one of the hills outside Winchester, which would surely have resulted in at least one view of the city from above.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Rocky Cliffs with a Small Waterfall 1795 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2012, 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-rocky-cliffs-with-a-small-waterfall-r1140988, accessed 18 April 2024.