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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Isle of Wight from Christchurch 1811

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 27 Recto:
The Isle of Wight from Christchurch 1811
D08411
Turner Bequest CXXIII 27
Pencil on white wove writing paper, 75 x 117 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘XC’ bottom left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘27’ bottom right, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CXXIII – 27’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The Isle of Wight, with the Needles at its eastern end, is seen on the left. This sketch and that on folio 22 recto (D08403) seem to have been the basis of an unfinished watercolour known as Coast Scene with White Cliffs and Boats (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven),1 of a similar size to those Turner completed for the Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast of England project (see the introduction to the 1811 West Country tour).
For other sketches made around Christchurch see under folio 22 recto (D08403).

Matthew Imms
June 2011

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.355 no.488, reproduced; it has since been described as ‘definitely not by Turner’: see Eric Shanes, ‘Books’, Turner Studies, vol.1, no.1, Summer 1981, p.47.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Isle of Wight from Christchurch 1811 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2011, 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-the-isle-of-wight-from-christchurch-r1136888, accessed 28 March 2024.