
Not on display
- Artist
- Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
- Medium
- Watercolour and gouache on paper
- Dimensions
- Support: 488 × 684 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
- Reference
- D18158
Turner Bequest CCVIII Y
Display caption
Here the moon plays a key role in Turner's narrative. A party of English smugglers is shown receiving barrels of illegal gin from French sailors by moonlight. An operation routinely carried out under the cover of nightfall is exposed by a sunrise which has arrived too early for the miscreants. From the right approaches a boat of the Coast Blockade, initiated in 1816 to combat smuggling, which is spotted by the men who quickly try to 'sink' the barrels on ropes for later retrieval. Beyond their narrative significance, the twin light sources of moon and sun fuse the atmosphere of the painting into an ethereal whole.
Gallery label, September 2004
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.
Explore
- architecture(41,314)
-
- townscapes / man-made features(21,691)
-
- townscape, distant(8,119)
- religious and ceremonial(1,666)
-
- flag, France(13)
- Kent(1,085)
- England(19,249)
- England, South East(5,957)
- England, Southern(9,005)
- transport: water(8,024)
-
- boat - non-specific(2,210)
- sail(80)
- crime and punishment(435)
-
- smuggler(8)
You might like
-
Joseph Mallord William Turner Folkestone
c.1822–3 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Folkestone from the Sea
c.1822–4 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Folkestone
c.1822–3 -
After Joseph Mallord William Turner Folkestone
1826 -
After Joseph Mallord William Turner Folkestone
1830 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Folkestone
1845 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Folkestone
1845 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Folkestone
1845 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Folkestone
1845 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Folkestone
1845 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Folkestone, from the North-East
c.1821–2 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Folkestone
1845 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Folkestone, Kent
c.1826 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Views at Folkestone
c.1821–2 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner A View of Sandgate Castle, from Folkestone
c.1821–2