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 Houses on a Channel Cliff with a Gorge 1845

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Houses on a Channel Cliff with a Gorge’ 1845
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 8 Recto:
Houses on a Channel Cliff with a Gorge 1845
D35501
Turner Bequest CCCLXI 8
Pencil on white wove paper, 86 x 111 mm
Partial watermark ‘King | 842’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘8’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCCLXI – 8’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The main view is inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, and shows houses on the skyline above what seem to be cliffs with a gulley or gorge between them, presumably on the coast. The view on the verso and folio 9 recto (D35502–D35503), which Finberg suggested as Folkestone1 (see folio 5 verso; D35496), but this is unconfirmed.
Towards the bottom right is the inverted continuation of sea cliffs from folio 7 verso opposite (D35500). See the sketchbook’s Introduction for the many slight views scattered through it.
1
See Finberg 1909, II, p.1171.
Technical notes:
There is some brown staining at the gutter, possibly indicating water damage in the 1928 Tate flood.

Matthew Imms
September 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Houses on a Channel Cliff with a Gorge 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-houses-on-a-channel-cliff-with-a-gorge-r1183926, accessed 24 April 2024.