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 > Cornwall and Devon Sketchbook [pseudo ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Benoath Cove near Bossiney, with Saddle Rocks and Long Island in the Distance 1811

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Benoath Cove near Bossiney, with Saddle Rocks and Long Island in the Distance’ 1811
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 72 Recto:
Benoath Cove near Bossiney, with Saddle Rocks and Long Island in the Distance 1811
D41354
Turner Bequest CXXV a 72
Pencil on white wove paper, 142 x 215 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘grassy’ or ‘quarry’ towards bottom right
Inscribed by C.F. Bell in pencil ‘72’ top right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom centre
Stamped in black ‘CXXV.A – 72’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
From the coast east of Tintagel (for which see under folio 9 recto; D41284) and Bossiney, Turner looks north-east to Long Island, the prominent feature towards the left in the distance, with Saddle Rocks below and in front of it. There is a closer view on folio 31 recto (D41307), under which other local views are noted.
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 the subject as ‘Rocks on coast’ in a manuscript listing,1 while C.F. Bell described it in his own notes as ‘Rocky coast’.2 Figures usually corresponding to Finberg’s MS catalogue page numbers, which differ from Bell’s sequence, are inscribed on the verso of most sheets.
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) 64.
2
C.F. Bell, MS addenda, [after 1928], tipped into a copy of Finberg 1909, Tate Britain Prints and Drawings Room, vol.I, p.356C, as CXXVa 72.
Technical notes:
The sheet is slightly wrinkled, possibly as a result of exposure to damp.
Verso:
Blank, save for inscription by Edwin Fagg in pencil ‘164 | 64’ bottom right. There are glue stains at the corners of the sheet.

Matthew Imms
July 2011

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Benoath Cove near Bossiney, with Saddle Rocks and Long Island in the Distance 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-benoath-cove-near-bossiney-with-saddle-rocks-and-long-island-r1137502, accessed 26 April 2024.