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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Northern France 1832 > Guernsey Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner La Coupée, Sark Island; Cliffs ?near Fort La Marchant, Guernsey ?1832

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘La Coupée, Sark Island; Cliffs ?near Fort La Marchant, Guernsey’ ?1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 56 Verso:
La Coupée, Sark Island; Cliffs ?near Fort La Marchant, Guernsey ?1832
D23626
Turner Bequest CCLII 56a
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 187 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Coupe’ centre, ‘Le Marchant’ towards bottom right, inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner filled this page with views of the type of high jagged cliffs that abound in the Channel Islands. As indicated by Turner’s note, the sketch on the top half of the page records the point at which Little Sark is joined to the main island by an extremely high and narrow isthmus called La Coupée.1 This geological feature frequently recurs in the sketchbook; for a full listing of these drawings, see folio 56 recto (D23625; Turner Bequest CCLII 56).
The lower sketch, inverted in relation to the sketchbook as foliated, is inscribed Le Marchant, indicative of a location in Guernsey near the fort of that name.2 This location recurs on folio 88 verso (D23690; Turner Bequest CCLII 88a).

John Chu
April 2014

1
J.T. Cochrane, A Guide to the Island of Guernsey, St Peter Port 1826, p.141.
2
Martin White, Sailing Directions for the English Channel, London 1835, p.107.

How to cite

John Chu, ‘La Coupée, Sark Island; Cliffs ?near Fort La Marchant, Guernsey ?1832 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-la-coupee-sark-island-cliffs-near-fort-la-marchant-guernsey-r1175118, accessed 24 April 2024.