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

The twin islands of Flat Holm and Steep Holm and the northern part of Somerset are among the features on the horizon to the north-east across Bridgwater Bay, apparently drawn from the Somerset coast at Blue Anchor Bay east of Minehead. A similar horizon with the coast of South Wales to the north-west is seen in the view of Minehead on D08956 (CXXVI 10). The present drawing may have been made from the same viewpoint. There is a very brief continuation on D41531 (the verso of D08958; CXXVI 12). The individual leaves of the sketchbook were apparently still oversewn together at that point (see the introduction), as the two parts of the drawing stop short of the stitch holes at their inner edges.

There is a rougher sketch of the same view in the contemporary Devonshire Coast, No.1 sketchbook (Tate D08673; Turner Bequest CXXIII 163), which seems to have been made from the coast road a few miles east of Minehead, so the present drawing may alternatively have been made from there as well. Flat Holm and Steep Holm also appear in the view of Dunster Castle on D08953 (CXXVI 7).

Technical notes:

There are five sets of stitch holes near the left-hand edge.

Verso:

Blank