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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Kent Coast and Whaling c.1844-5 > Hythe and Walmer Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Cliffs on the Coast; ?Walmer Castle 1845

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Cliffs on the Coast; ?Walmer Castle’ 1845
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 6 Recto:
Cliffs on the Coast; ?Walmer Castle 1845
D35344
Turner Bequest CCCLV 6
Pencil on blue wove paper, 186 x 70 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Walmer’ centre right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘6’ top left inverted, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCLV–6’ top left inverted, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The sketches are inverted relative to the foliation. At the top Turner has drawn two simple linear profiles of what is presumed to be Walmer Castle from a distance. Turner gives a brief suggestion of the configuration of this Tudor coastal fortress, with its circular keep, bastions, and gatehouses. Beneath is a further profile of a cliff coastline with a cloud above it; he has inscribed ‘Walmer’ next to the cloud, with ‘Castle’ following to the right on folio 5 verso (D35343). Below these sketches are sketches of cliffs which continue across D35343. Turner produced a number of other pencil drawings of Walmer Castle and the surrounding area (see the introduction to this sketchbook).
Technical notes:
The outside long edge is irregular and slightly crumpled; it is probably the edge of the larger sheet of which this was originally part.

Alice Rylance-Watson
February 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Cliffs on the Coast; ?Walmer Castle 1845 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, June 2013, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-cliffs-on-the-coast-walmer-castle-r1142175, accessed 22 November 2024.