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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Wales and Isle of Wight 1795-1800 > Isle of Wight Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Totland Bay, Isle of Wight, Looking towards the Needles 1795

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Totland Bay, Isle of Wight, Looking towards the Needles’ 1795
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 43 Recto:
Totland Bay, Isle of Wight, Looking towards the Needles 1795
D00450
Turner Bequest XXIV 42
Pencil on white wove paper, 204 x 264 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Totland’ bottom centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘42’ bottom left, descending vertically (now faint)
Stamped in black ‘XXIV 42’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is the basis for an untraced watercolour,1 engraved by John Landseer for an unpublished work of about 1799 and published by Bohn in 1852 as ‘Alum Bay with the Needles’. See also folio 42 recto (D00449; Turner Bequest XXIV 41). In the year following this tour Turner exhibited his first oil painting at the Royal Academy, Fishermen at Sea (Tate T01585),2 which includes a moonlit view of the Needles. Apart from the slight study of an isolated rock on folio 41 recto (D00448; Turner Bequest XXIV 40), however, this is the only drawing he seems to have made recording the group.
The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally.
1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.319 no.180.
2
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.1–2 no.1, pl.1 (colour).
Verso:
Blank; colour offsets from folio 44 recto opposite (D00451; Turner Bequest XXIV 43); stamped in brown ink with Turner Bequest monogram.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Totland Bay, Isle of Wight, Looking towards the Needles 1795 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-totland-bay-isle-of-wight-looking-towards-the-needles-r1141028, accessed 03 March 2025.