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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > West Country 1811 > Devonshire Coast, No.1 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dunster Castle and Minehead; A Coastal View, Possibly at Watchet 1811

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dunster Castle and Minehead; A Coastal View, Possibly at Watchet’ 1811
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 171 Verso:
Dunster Castle and Minehead; A Coastal View, Possibly at Watchet 1811
D08683
Turner Bequest CXXIII 168a
Pencil on white wove writing paper, 75 x 117 mm
Part watermark ‘th | 6’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Dunster’ centre right, below right-hand drawing
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Of the two small views separated by pencil lines in the upper half of the page, the one on the right recapitulates the view towards Dunster and Minehead recorded on folio 165 verso (D08672; CXXIII 162a), with the addition of a tree and buildings towards the right, identifiable as the inn, now the Blue Anchor Hotel, which feature in the Southern Coast watercolour of the subject.1 See under D08672 for further discussion of the subject, and under folio 19 verso (D08398) for other Dunster views.
The slight study at the top left appears to show shipping in a harbour with a coast beyond, and may have been made at Watchet, just to the east along the Somerset coast from the viewpoint of the Dunster sketch. For a clearer view of Watchet, see folio 173 verso (D08687; CXXIII 170a).

Matthew Imms
June 2011

1
See Eric Shanes, Turner’s England 1810–38, London 1990, p.60.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Dunster Castle and Minehead; A Coastal View, Possibly at Watchet 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-dunster-castle-and-minehead-a-coastal-view-possibly-at-r1137161, accessed 26 April 2024.