Folkestone

1845

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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 x 328 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D35377
Turner Bequest CCCLVI 16

Catalogue entry

Turner has rendered the obscure forms of a headland in this drawing through vigorous strokes and layers of wash applied over dry paper, lending parts of it a mottled effect. Daubs of graded blue-grey suggest a body of water, perhaps the sea or Pent Stream, at the right. Turner exploits the textured grain of the paper by using a predominantly dry-brush method; the dark grey-brown pigment in the central register particularly rendered to full, contrastive effect as a result. Above, the form of a building on the headland is rendered hazily in dabs of umber and brown wash. An isolated stretch of sky is punctured by a broad stroke of brown wash – a spontaneous continuation of the colour used in the headland.

Technical notes:

Some of the pigment has offset onto the folio opposite.

Alice Rylance-Watson
February 2013

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