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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Castle Cornet, Guernsey; Sark Island ?1832

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 76 Recto:
Castle Cornet, Guernsey; Sark Island ?1832
D23665
Turner Bequest CCLII 76
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 187 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Memory of Sark’ bottom centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘76’ top left, inverted
Stamped in black ‘CCLII – 76’ top left, inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner worked at sketches of contrasting coastal terrain onto this page, each inverted in relation to the sketchbook as foliated. The inscription ‘Memory of Sark’ at the bottom centre of the page appears to refer to the grouped land-masses in the lower left-hand corner, or perhaps to the high jagged cliffs in the top left quadrant which are a particular feature of the island of that name. In the middle of the page is a view of the medieval fortress of Castle Cornet in Guernsey’s St Peter Port some three miles to the west of Sark. The dense cluster of pencil marks immediately beneath the castle presumably depicts foreground quayside activity although the forms are too indeterminate to venture a precise identification. For the key entry on this landmark, see folio 29 verso (D23575; Turner Bequest CCLII 29a). In the top right-hand corner is a dense collection buildings rising up a hill, and also a view of a lone building on high ground, each perhaps taken on the built-up hillsides that shelter St Peter Port. For comparisons, see the drawings of the town listed under in the entry for folio 30 recto (D23576; Turner Bequest CCLII 30).

John Chu
April 2014

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Castle Cornet, Guernsey; 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-castle-cornet-guernsey-sark-island-r1175157, accessed 29 March 2024.