For its exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 2002, for which no catalogue was published, the work was retitled by Warrell as ‘Scene (possibly Folkestone)’, dated to about 1830–5, and associated with the
England and Wales project.
4 The composition can be compared with a pencil view of ‘Cliffs near Folkestone’ in the
Folkestone sketchbook of about 1821 (Tate
D17293; Turner Bequest CXCVIII 52a), which shows cliffs receding to the left and a tower comparable to the one shown here as a blue silhouette on the skyline. A similar view in the later
Ideas of Folkestone sketchbook of 1845 (Tate
D35374; Turner Bequest CCCLVI 14) may show the same landmarks. With the sea to the left, the views are to the west. Turner’s watercolour
Folkestone Harbour and Coast to Dover of about 1829 (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven),
5 engraved in 1831 for
England and Wales (Tate impressions:
T04570,
T04571), shows the view in the opposite direction. See the entries for the colour studies Tate
D25225 and
D36327 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 103, CCCLXV 36).