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

Eric Shanes has tentatively related this colour study to the watercolour Whitehaven, Cumberland of about 1835 or 1836 (currently untraced),1 engraved in 1837 for the Picturesque Views in England and Wales (Tate impressions: T05103, T06125).2 There are no identified sketches of this particular view southwards along the Cumbrian coast, although Turner visited the town in 1809 and made numerous pencil sketches including one of rocks and cliffs looking south to Whitehaven and St Bees Head (Tate D12251; Turner Bequest CLV 10) which was developed as a watercolour soon afterwards (Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester).3

The correlation of forms and colours in the present study with those of the England and Wales design are not particularly direct: there is a sense of pale, sunlit coastal features on the left below the storm clouds to the right, while a few reddish marks in the foreground might prefigure the wreckage and boats in the finished composition, although these similarities may be fortuitous given the lack of detail. David Brown’s continued use of Finberg’s ‘storm’ title with a revised date of the mid-1840s4 appears equally feasible, but the case is likely to remain unproven either way.

See also the introductions to the present subsection of identified subjects and the overall England and Wales ‘colour beginnings’ grouping to which this work has been assigned.

Verso:
Blank; inscribed in pencil ‘32’ above centre, upside down; inscribed in red ink ‘AB 116 P’ bottom right; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram above ‘CCCLXV – 10’ bottom right; inscribed in pencil ‘CCCLXV, 10’.