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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Venice, Austria and Southern Germany ... > Würzburg, Rhine and Ostend Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dunes on the Coast at Ostend, with a Distant Tower 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dunes on the Coast at Ostend, with a Distant Tower’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 4 Recto:
Dunes on the Coast at Ostend, with a Distant Tower 1840
D30466
Turner Bequest CCCIII 4
Pencil on flecked pale blue laid paper, 104 x 170 mm
Partial watermark: Tree of Liberty
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘1’ top right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘4’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCIII – 4’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This slight drawing was made with the page turned horizontally, and appears to show sand dunes in the foreground, and a distant tower, presumably near Ostend, although it is not clear whether the two elements are continuous. The isolated stroke at the top right is apparently a ‘1’, in sequence with ‘2’ and ‘3’ on the verso (D30467).
For numerous views around the port on adjacent pages, marking the end of Turner’s 1840 tour, see under folio 1 recto (D30460).1

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
See also Powell 1995, pp.72, 82 note 71, 246.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Dunes on the Coast at Ostend, with a Distant Tower 1840 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2018, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-dunes-on-the-coast-at-ostend-with-a-distant-tower-r1196226, accessed 26 April 2024.