Dover Castle from the Sea (for Marine Views)

Joseph Mallord William Turner (English, 1775–1851)

1822

Medium/TechniqueTransparent and opaque watercolor on paper

DimensionsSheet: 40.5 x 60 cm (15 15/16 x 23 5/8 in.)
Framed: 73.3 x 93 cm (28 7/8 x 36 5/8 in.)

Credit LineBequest of David P. Kimball in memory of his wife Clara Bertram Kimball

Accession number23.513

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsWatercolors

Collections

InscriptionsLower right: J.M.W. Turner 1822Provenance1823, lent anonymously to the Turner exhibition at W. B. Cooke, London. By 1857, John Stuart Hippisley (b. 1790 - d. 1867), London [see note 1]. By 1860, Henry Bradley, Leamington; May 26-28, 1860, Bradley and others sale, Christie, Manson, and Woods, lot 38, to Mr. White. John Dillon (d. by 1869), London; 1869, possibly sold through Christie, Manson and Woods, London [see note 2]. 1881, possibly sold by Agnew and Sons, London [see note 3]. William Leech (d. by 1887), London; May 21, 1887, posthumous Leech sale, Christie, Manson and Woods, London, lot 69, to Agnew. John Gadsby Chapman (b. 1808 - d. 1889), New York [see note 4]. 1900, Samuel Putnam Avery (b. 1822 - d. 1904), New York. Clara Bertram Kimball (b. 1838 - d. 1920), Boston; by inheritance to her husband, David P. Kimball (b. 1833 - d. 1923), Boston; 1923, bequest of David P. Kimball to the MFA. (Accession Date: November 1, 1923)

NOTES:
[1] Lent to the Exhibition of Art Treasures at Manchester (1857), cat. no. 356, as "Dover from the Sea" (noted by A. Graves, A Century of Loan Exhibitions, vol. III, p. 1332, to be a drawing). Handwritten annotations next to the entry for the watercolor in the 1887 Leech sale (held by the RKD, The Hague) state "once in Sir John Hippisley collection."

[2] That this belonged to John Dillon is according to C. F. Bell, A List of the Works Contributed to Public Exhibitions by J. M. W. Turner (London, 1901), p. 165. The annotations in the Leech sale (as above, n. 1) state that the watercolor "sold in 1869 for £735 at Christie's." While this sale has not yet been traced, Christie's did sell portions of the John Dillon collection in that year.

[3] Samuel Putnam Avery wrote to the MFA on December 5, 1900, offering the watercolor for sale and stating that "Agnew [and] Sons sold it in 1881 for £1650."

[4] That this belonged to Chapman is according to Bell, 1901 (as above, n. 2).