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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Autumn Tour of Northern France 1845 > Dieppe and Kent Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Channel Harbour with a Lighthouse; Cliffs 1845

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Channel Harbour with a Lighthouse; Cliffs’ 1845
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 3 Recto:
A Channel Harbour with a Lighthouse; Cliffs 1845
D35491
Turner Bequest CCCLXI 3
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 86 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘3’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCLXI – 3’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned vertically, there is a rapid study apparently of a Channel harbour with a lighthouse and distant cliffs, with a curl of smoke, presumably from a distant steamer; at right angles is a larger but even slighter study of coastal cliffs, with buildings seemingly including a tower or chimney (or a steamer’s funnel) in the foreground. See the sketchbook’s Introduction for the many slight coastal and shipping views scattered through it.
Technical notes:
The whole page has darkened somewhat, possibly as a result of water damage in the 1928 Tate flood.

Matthew Imms
September 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Channel Harbour with a Lighthouse; Cliffs 1845 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-channel-harbour-with-a-lighthouse-cliffs-r1183916, accessed 25 April 2024.