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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and French ... > Holland, Meuse and Cologne Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dover Harbour, with the Western Heights and the Castle in the Distance beyond the South Pier 1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dover Harbour, with the Western Heights and the Castle in the Distance beyond the South Pier’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 2 Recto:
Dover Harbour, with the Western Heights and the Castle in the Distance beyond the South Pier 1825
D19403
Turner Bequest CCXV 2
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Partial watermark ‘Partial watermark ‘lee | 9’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘2’ top right, and ‘277’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXV – 2’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The view is north-eastwards across Dover Harbour1 to the castle on the skyline above the chalk cliffs. The view is continued half way across folio 1 verso opposite (D19402), where the defences on the Western Heights are shown. Compare a two-part, single-page view in the contemporary Holland sketchbook (Tate D19362; Turner Bequest CCXIV 263).
The end of the southern pier at the harbour entrance is shown in the foreground; it is seen in more detail on folio 5 recto (D19409), as part of a panorama continuing from folios 3 verso–4 recto (D19406–D19407). The overall view is loosely similar to that shown in the watercolour, Dover (Tate D18154; Turner Bequest CCVIII U),2 engraved in 1827 for the Ports of England (Tate impressions: T04828–T04829). For other Dover views in this sketchbook and elsewhere, see under folio 1 recto (D19401).

Matthew Imms
September 2020

1
See Finberg 1909, II, p.662.
2
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.387 no.753, reproduced.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Dover Harbour, with the Western Heights and the Castle in the Distance beyond the South Pier 1825 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2020, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-dover-harbour-with-the-western-heights-and-the-castle-in-the-r1202758, accessed 20 May 2024.