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 Rocky Beach on the Isle of Wight 1827

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Rocky Beach on the Isle of Wight’ 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 34 Recto:
A Rocky Beach on the Isle of Wight 1827
D20783
Turner Bequest CCXXVII 32
Watercolour and gouache on white wove paper prepared with a grey wash, 110 x 185 mm
Partial watermark ‘nsell | 17’
Stamped in black ‘CCXXVII – 32’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This colour sketch is inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation. It presumably shows the coast of the Isle of Wight, and may show stormy conditions as Finberg proposed,1 although there are no landmarks to facilitate a precise identification of this rocky beach and the headlands beyond. For other drawings showing the island, including some on nearby pages including folio 33 verso opposite (D20781; Turner Bequest CCXXVII 31), 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).

Matthew Imms
November 2015

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Rocky Beach on the Isle of Wight 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-rocky-beach-on-the-isle-of-wight-r1182643, accessed 24 January 2025.