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

Rendered with the sketchbook turned upside down, this page contains a series of jottings depicting aspects of the Sussex Channel coast, possibly between Littlehampton, at the mouth of the Arun, Bognor Regis and Selsey (see Tate D18452; Turner Bequest CCX 80).

The uppermost view shows beachfront buildings and is annotated with inscriptions reading ‘Curly Kelp’, ‘Crabs’, and ‘Boys’. There are small thumbnail sketches of buildings below, accompanied by a scrawled inscription and the date ‘MDCCCII’ (1822). It may be worth noting that the Market House at Bognor Regis was constructed in the same year, in line with the town’s redevelopment as a fashionable coastal resort.1 The remaining views, which extend onto CCX 80, show a wide bay on the coast and sea-front buildings.