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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > East Anglia, Sussex and Yorkshire 1824 > Brighton and Arundel Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Buildings at Kemp Town, Brighton c.1824

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Buildings at Kemp Town, Brighton’ c.1824
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 29 Recto:
Buildings at Kemp Town, Brighton c.1824
D18357
Turner Bequest CCX 29
Pencil on white wove paper, 75 x 118 mm
Watermarked ‘Smith & [Allnutt] | 18[22]’
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Bedford’ centre, ‘13’ bottom centre towards right
Inscribed in blue ink by Ruskin ‘29’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CCX 29’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is a study of the Regency townhouses which line the Marine Parade at Kemp Town, a district to the east of Brighton city centre. Turner has inscribed ‘Bedford’ in the centre of the drawing to mark the beginning of Bedford Street.
There is a separate jotting of an architectural feature at top right. This could be a sketch of the decorative scheme carved into the exterior of Brighton Pavilion, the holiday residence of the Prince Regent (later George IV) constructed from 1815 to 1823 in the Indo-Saracenic Revival style.
For further sketches of Brighton in this book see Tate D18343–D18350, D18353–D18365, D18369–D18371; Turner Bequest CCX 20a–23a, 25a–33a, 35a–36a. See also Turner’s design Brighthelmstone, produced for Cooke’s Picturesque Views of the Southern Coast of England and published in 1825 (Tate impression T05289 and Tate D18469; Turner Bequest CCX 88).

Alice Rylance-Watson
February 2015

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Buildings at Kemp Town, Brighton c.1824 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2015, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-buildings-at-kemp-town-brighton-r1181242, accessed 05 April 2026.