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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Vignette watercolours c.1826-1843 > Watercolours Related to The Poetical ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Vignette Study; Sea, Sun and Cliffs c.1825-36

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Vignette Study; Sea, Sun and Cliffs’ c.1825-36
Vignette Study; Sea, Sun and Cliffs circa 1825–36
D27603
Turner Bequest CCLXXX 86
Pencil and watercolour, approximately 100 x 120 mm on white wove paper, 205 x 172 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘(86’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXX 86’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This unfinished study of a seascape framed by rocks and cliffs probably relates to the vignette illustrations that Turner produced during the 1820s and 1830s. However, the loose nature of the tranquil coastal scene means that it is too vague to be conclusively linked to any of the finished vignettes. The absence of human activity means that it could be an experimental backdrop for a number of Turner’s designs related to literary projects. The only suggestion of detail in this simple study of colour and form in nature is offered by the rays of a setting or rising sun which the artist has drawn in pencil on the horizon.
A.J. Finberg reasonably identified this work as a study for Tornaro (see Tate D27689; Turner Bequest CCLXXX 172), a vignette which Turner designed for Rogers’s Poems (1834).1 More recently, Jan Piggott has linked it to O’Connor’s Child (National Gallery of Scotland),2 although it could also feasibly relate to Lord Ullin’s Daughter (National Gallery of Scotland).3 Both of the latter appear in Edward Moxon’s 1837 edition of Thomas Campbell’s Poetical Works.
1
Finberg 1909, vol.II, p.895.
2
Piggott 1993, p.95; Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, no.1276; reproduced in colour in Mungo Campbell, A Complete Catalogue of Works by Turner in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh 1993, p.57.
3
Wilton 1979, no.1280; reproduced in colour in Campbell 1993, p.59.
Verso:
Inscribed by unknown hands in blue pencil ‘224’ centre and in pencil ‘D27603’ bottom left

Meredith Gamer
August 2006

How to cite

Meredith Gamer, ‘Vignette Study; Sea, Sun and Cliffs c.1825–36’, catalogue entry, August 2006, 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/vignette-study-sea-sun-and-cliffs-r1133433, accessed 19 September 2026.