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 Rocquaine Bay, Guernsey ?1832

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Rocquaine Bay, Guernsey’ ?1832
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 78 Recto:
Rocquaine Bay, Guernsey ?1832
D23669
Turner Bequest CCLII 78
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 187 mm
Partial watermark ‘J. JELL | 18’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Rokuane’ centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘78’ top left, inverted
Stamped in black ‘CCLII – 78’ top left, inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted in relation to the sketchbook as foliated, the small drawings on this page record various views of Rocquaine Bay on the western coast of Guernsey. Fort Grey, the ‘Martello’ tower which defended this stretch of coast during the Napoleonic Wars, recurs at least three times.1 Perched on a rock at the centre of the bay, this fortress is identifiable by a cylindrical tower ringed by a circular stone wall. For other depictions of the bay in this volume, see the entry for folio 77 verso (D23668; Turner Bequest CCLII 77a).

John Chu
April 2014

1
W.H. Clements, Towers of Strength: the story of the Martello towers, Barnsley 1999, pp.67–9.

How to cite

John Chu, ‘Rocquaine Bay, 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-rocquaine-bay-guernsey-r1175161, accessed 19 April 2024.