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 Cliffs, Possibly near Sidmouth; ?Old Sarum 1811

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Cliffs, Possibly near Sidmouth; ?Old Sarum’ 1811
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 210 Recto:
Cliffs, Possibly near Sidmouth; ?Old Sarum 1811
D08740
Turner Bequest CXXIII 207
Pencil on white wove writing paper, 75 x 117 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘207’ top left, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CXXIII – 207’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The main view shows rugged coastal cliffs with the sun just above them. They may be characteristic of the Sidmouth area (see folios 206 verso and 208 recto; D08734, D08737; CXXIII 203a, 205), making this a late afternoon view towards the west.
At the top left, separated by vertical and horizontal strokes, appears a smaller landscape which appears to feature a terraced hill or large earthwork. The profile suggests Old Sarum, which Turner would seen just to the west when travelling south between Stonehenge (see folios 214 verso, 215 recto and verso and 216 recto; D08749–D08752; Turner Bequest CXXIII 211a, 212, 212a, 213) and Salisbury in the final stages of his West Country tour. He wrote about the site in his extended topographical poem in this sketchbook (see folio 33 verso; D08424) and had recorded the view of Salisbury Cathedral from the hill in the Isle of Wight sketchbook in 1795 (Tate D00421; Turner Bequest XXIV 14b). Eric Shanes has discussed the links between Turner’s subsequent treatments of Stonehenge and Old Sarum.1

Matthew Imms
June 2011

1
See Eric Shanes, Turner’s England 1810–38, London 1990, p.187.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Cliffs, Possibly near Sidmouth; ?Old Sarum 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-cliffs-possibly-near-sidmouth-old-sarum-r1137218, accessed 25 April 2024.