Joseph Mallord William Turner

A Storm at Folkestone

1845

Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

License this image

In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment
Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Ideas of Folkestone Sketchbook
Medium
Watercolour on paper
Dimensions
Support: 230 × 328 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D35361
Turner Bequest CCCLVI 1

Catalogue entry

Depicting a section of Folkestone’s coastline in the midst of a storm, Turner has flooded the paper with dilute grey and blue wash, allowing the colours to merge into one another. A dry-brush technique has been used in the foreground, the textured result giving an impression of a choppy sea. The shadowed profile of a headland emerges to the right of the central register, its contours blurred as the wash has bled and feathered.

Alice Rylance-Watson
February 2013

Read full Catalogue entry

Explore

You might like

Left Right

In the shop

Browse the shop