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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Brighton and Copies from Wilson 1796-7 > Studies near Brighton Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Line of Cliffs between Margate and Reculver, with Reculver Church in the Distance 1796

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Line of Cliffs between Margate and Reculver, with Reculver Church in the Distance’ 1796
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 2 Recto:
The Line of Cliffs between Margate and Reculver, with Reculver Church in the Distance 1796
D00731
Turner Bequest XXX 2
Pencil on white laid paper, 108 x 126 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘2’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘XXX 2’ bottom right
The subject of this slight sketch is indisputable, and proves (see the sketchbook’s Introduction) that Turner’s title for the book does not define its contents at all precisely. Another view of Reculver occurs in the Wilson sketchbook (Tate D01231; Turner Bequest XXXVII 114). The two towers are of the twelfth century, and were at the west end of the Saxon St Mary’s Abbey, founded by Abbot Bassa in the seventh century. The Abbey was largely demolished in 1809, though the towers were rebuilt in a Picturesque Gothic manner to constitute a prominent sea-mark on the north Kent coast.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
May 2011

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘The Line of Cliffs between Margate and Reculver, with Reculver Church in the Distance 1796 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-line-of-cliffs-between-margate-and-reculver-with-r1149682, accessed 25 April 2024.