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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Work for Earls Egremont and Lonsdale ... > Lowther Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Distant View of the Isle of Man 1809

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Distant View of the Isle of Man’ 1809
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 48 Verso:
Distant View of the Isle of Man 1809
D07926
Turner Bequest CXIII 48a
Pencil on white wove paper, 83 x 114 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Isle of Man White[?haven]’ right of centre, and in ink (see main catalogue entry), beside gutter at left, running vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the sketchbook inverted. This very slight outline of the island on the horizon is taken from St Bees, which Turner visited in 1809. ‘White’ is presumably a reference to Whitehaven north of St Bees.
Turner’s inscription in ink reads:
Anaxagorus, A,,gar,tha,,chus | the sun 95 millions of miles distant | The Earth equal to 18 seconds of a degree | the 1200 seconds | the Moon nearly the apparent size of E.
For Anaxagoras and Agatharcus see the Greenwich and Perspective sketchbooks (Tate D06728; Turner Bequest CII 4a and Tate D07423; Turner Bequest CVIII 41). However, Turner may intend to refer to Aristarchus (circa 310–230BC) who concluded that the sun is larger than the earth.

David Blayney Brown
July 2009

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Distant View of the Isle of Man 1809 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2009, 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-distant-view-of-the-isle-of-man-r1135882, accessed 26 April 2024.