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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Isle of Wight 1827 > Isle of Wight Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Cove on the Isle of Wight, with ?Cattle 1827

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Cove on the Isle of Wight, with ?Cattle’ 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 27 Recto:
A Cove on the Isle of Wight, with ?Cattle 1827
D20774
Turner Bequest CCXXVII 27
Watercolour on white wove paper prepared with a grey wash, 110 x 185 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCXXVII – 27’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This slight but atmospheric colour sketch presumably shows the coast of the Isle of Wight, as Finberg proposed,1 although there are no landmarks to facilitate a precise identification of this quiet scene. There are three or four large animals standing in the shallows, apparently cattle or possibly horses. For other drawings showing the island, including some on nearby pages, see under folio 2 recto (D20735).
1
Finberg 1909, II, p.699.
Technical notes:
This is one of several pages where the monochrome grey wash common to all the rectos has been worked in watercolour with occasional scratching out; see under folio 5 recto (D20741).
The number ‘992’ inscribed on the verso (D20775) is typical of those inscribed on the backs of sketchbook pages extracted for display in the nineteenth century, but the leaf shows no obvious sign of having been removed and reattached, unlike folio 29 (D41006; Turner Bequest CCXXVII 43), for example.

Matthew Imms
November 2015

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Cove on the Isle of Wight, with ?Cattle 1827 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2015, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-cove-on-the-isle-of-wight-with-cattle-r1182636, accessed 05 February 2025.