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 > Ideas of Folkestone Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Evening on the Sands: Folkestone 1845

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Evening on the Sands: Folkestone’ 1845
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 7 Recto:
Evening on the Sands: Folkestone 1845
D35368
Turner Bequest CCCLVI 8
Watercolour on white wove paper, 230 x 328 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘8’ bottom right
Blind stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom left, near gutter
Stamped in black ‘CCCLVI–8’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
In this work Turner depicts a view of a Folkestone beach at twilight, probably including the harbour in the distance. Muted grey, blue, green, and purple tones have been applied in dilute wash to convey a sense of the stillness which evening brings. Vivid against these planes of subdued colour is a central towered structure in bright red, whose pigment bleeds opportunely into the surrounding grey sky.
Technical notes:
Some of the watercolour continues onto the opposite page.

Alice Rylance-Watson
February 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Evening on the Sands: Folkestone 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-evening-on-the-sands-folkestone-r1142146, accessed 19 April 2024.