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 ?1832

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘La Coupée, Sark Island’ ?1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 61 Verso:
La Coupée, Sark Island ?1832
D23636
Turner Bequest CCLII 61a
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 187 mm
Partial watermark ‘YMAN | 28’
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted in relation to the sketchbook as foliated, the sketched passages on this page depict the kind of high jagged cliffs that abound in the Channel Islands and on Sark in particular. 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 The footpath over this dangerous formation can be seen winding up from the centre of the page towards the top right-hand corner.
This geological eminence features frequently in the sketchbook; for a full listing of these drawings, see folio 56 recto (D23625; Turner Bequest CCLII 56).

John Chu
April 2014

1
J.T. Cochrane, A Guide to the Island of Guernsey, St Peter Port 1826, p.141.

How to cite

John Chu, ‘La Coupée, Sark Island ?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-r1175128, accessed 23 April 2024.