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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Ports of England c.1822-8 > Ports of England Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Coastal Scene, possibly Folkestone c.1822-3

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Coastal Scene, possibly Folkestone’ c.1822-3
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 11 Recto
Coastal Scene, possibly Folkestone c.1822–3
D17730
Turner Bequest CCII 11
Watercolour on white wove paper, 257 x 178 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘11’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCII–11’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
If this view does depict Folkestone then the fortification atop the headland could be the Norman Church of St Mary and St Eanswythe or a Martello tower. A streak of warm yellow wash seems to suggest a beach, leading the eye inwards towards the cruciform lines of a windmill and beyond to a settlement. The sea is rendered in blue-grey wash which merges and feathers into the brown Turner has used to indicate a crag or small breakwater.
The composition of the headland of this coastal scene is similar to that in Turner’s finished watercolour Folkestone from the Sea of about 1823–4 produced for the Marine Views series (Tate D18158; Turner Bequest CCVIII Y).1 There is a loose ‘colour beginning’ for this watercolour of about the same date (Tate D25480; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 357). The present drawing is also probably related to the one on the following folio (Tate D17731; Turner Bequest CCII 12).
1
See also Eric Shanes, Turner’s England 1810–38, London 1990, pp.120–1, no.95 (colour).
Verso:
Inscribed in pencil ‘CCII–II’ at bottom centre and again in another hand at bottom right towards gutter.

Alice Rylance-Watson
March 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Coastal Scene, possibly Folkestone c.1822–3 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-coastal-scene-possibly-folkestone-r1148300, accessed 25 April 2024.