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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Isle of Wight 1827 > Cowes Regatta Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Views of Southampton at Dusk, and its Surroundings; Studies of Buildings 1827

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Views of Southampton at Dusk, and its Surroundings; Studies of Buildings’ 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 64 Recto:
Views of Southampton at Dusk, and its Surroundings; Studies of Buildings 1827
D18113
Turner Bequest CCVII 64
Pencil on white wove paper, 74 x 100 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Bath’ top centre, and ‘Red’ right of centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘64’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCVII – 64’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, at the top is a somewhat featureless river landscape, which continues across folio 63 verso opposite (D18112), representing Southampton Water or one of its tributaries, the Rivers Test and Itchen. At the centre right is the profile of one of Southampton’s two church spires, apparently St Michael’s, with that of Holyrood beside it on the other page. They are both shown again in the main view at the bottom, with the last rays of a north-westerly summer sunset and a crescent moon reflected in the Test. It is just possible that this unusual combination inspired similar effects in the watercolour Cowes, Isle of Wight (private collection),1 engraved in 1830 for the Picturesque Views in England and Wales (Tate impressions: T04556, T06086, T06087), which was otherwise based on folio 21 recto (D18028). The sun is seen low Southampton’s spires on folios 66 recto and verso (D18117, D18118).
To the left and at the top are separate details, presumably of waterfront buildings at Southampton (of which few survive), including a bath-house, indicative of Southampton’s status by this period as a fashionable spa and bathing place.2 This is one of a sequence of views in the Southampton area; see under folio 58 verso (D18102).

Matthew Imms
December 2014

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.395 no.818, reproduced.
2
See ‘Southampton’s History’, Southampton Tourist Guides Association, accessed 15 December 2014, http://www.stga.org.uk/about-southampton.html.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Views of Southampton at Dusk, and its Surroundings; Studies of Buildings 1827 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-views-of-southampton-at-dusk-and-its-surroundings-studies-of-r1183601, accessed 08 May 2025.