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 Sunset over the Sea, Probably at Folkestone 1845

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sunset over the Sea, Probably at Folkestone’ 1845
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 16 Recto:
Sunset over the Sea, Probably at Folkestone 1845
D35378
Turner Bequest CCCLVI 17
Watercolour on white wove paper, 230 x 328 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘17’ bottom right
Blind stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCLVI–17’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is a watercolour study of the sun setting on the sea’s horizon. Dilute wash applied in continuous broad strokes form the first layer of the drawing upon and within which the representation of the sunset is centralised, rendered with more intense pigment. The merging of fluid colour and modulation of tone found in this drawing speak of the evocative, atmospheric possibilities of the medium.

Alice Rylance-Watson
February 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Sunset over the Sea, Probably at 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-sunset-over-the-sea-probably-at-folkestone-r1142156, accessed 25 April 2024.