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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Bude Beach 1811

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 35 Recto:
Bude Beach 1811
D41311
Turner Bequest CXXV a 35
Pencil on white wove paper, 142 x 215 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Bude’ bottom left
Inscribed by C.F. Bell in pencil ‘35’ top right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXV.A – 35’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The view is to the south over Bude’s beach to Compass Point beyond the mouth of the River Neet, with the coast of Cornwall stretching away along Bude Bay towards Tintagel (see under folio 9 recto; D41284), some fifteen miles to the south-west. There is a more detailed treatment of the distant cliffs on the verso (D41312), and further views on folios 40 recto, 63 recto, 68 recto and 70 recto (D41318, D41345, D41350, D41352). Other contemporary views are in the Devonshire Coast, No.1 sketchbook (Tate D08407, and possibly D08368; Turner Bequest CXXIII 24a and 4 respectively).
As discussed in the introduction, the pages of this ‘sketchbook’ appear to have originally been loose sheets, and are not recorded in Finberg’s 1909 Inventory of the Bequest, although he subsequently noted Turner’s inscription identifying the subject as ‘“Bude”’ in a manuscript listing,1 as did C.F. Bell in his own notes.2 Figures including one usually corresponding to Finberg’s MS catalogue page numbering, which differs from Bell’s sequence, are inscribed on the verso of most sheets, although in this case neither number (‘172 | 72’) matches Finberg’s.
1
A.J. Finberg, MS addenda, [circa 1928–39], tipped into a copy of his A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, Tate Britain Prints and Drawings Room, vol.I, opposite p.356, as CXXV(a) 68.
2
C.F. Bell, MS addenda, [after 1928], tipped into a copy of Finberg 1909, Tate Britain Prints and Drawings Room, vol.I, p.356B, as CXXVa 35.
Technical notes:
There are glue stains at the corners of the sheet, which is slightly wrinkled, possibly as a result of exposure to damp.

Matthew Imms
July 2011

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Bude Beach 1811 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 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-bude-beach-r1137459, accessed 28 March 2024.