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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Kent Coast and Whaling c.1844-5 > Hythe and Walmer Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Cliffs on the Coast 1845

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Cliffs on the Coast’ 1845
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 3 Recto:
Cliffs on the Coast 1845
D35338
Turner Bequest CCCLV 3
Pencil on blue wove paper, 70 x 186 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘4’ top centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘3’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCLV–3’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The sketches on the right side of the page are a continuation of the cliffs on folio 2 verso opposite (D35337). These are orientated at a right angle to the remaining sketch which has been drawn with the page turned horizontally. It appears to show the profile of cliff faces as the coastline recedes. Turner has employed rough strikes of the pencil to indicate the weathered surface texture of the cliffs towards the left. Above the outline of the headland of the cliff towards the bottom left Turner seems to have pencilled in the letter ‘J’ or possibly ‘S’. A number ‘4’ appears to hover above the outline of the cliff.

Alice Rylance-Watson
February 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Cliffs on the Coast 1845 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, June 2013, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-cliffs-on-the-coast-r1142169, accessed 26 April 2024.