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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and French ... > Holland Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Folkestone Harbour, with the Cliffs towards Copt Point 1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Folkestone Harbour, with the Cliffs towards Copt Point’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 20 Recto:
Folkestone Harbour, with the Cliffs towards Copt Point 1825
D18879
Turner Bequest CCXIV 20
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 155 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘20’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXIV – 20’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, the setting is Folkestone, as tentatively suggested by Finberg.1 The view is east-north-east from the harbour, which was later considerably expanded and redeveloped. On the left are houses along the Stade, which do not survive, with Martello Tower No.3 on the skyline above the cliffs towards Copt Point.2
Wider views in the same direction, including the coast towards Dover in the distance (possibly indistinctly sketched in here as well), appear on earlier pages, and relate to a subsequent watercolour; see under folio 17 recto (D18873) for details. This is the last of the sequence of Folkestone views at this end of the sketchbook; for numerous other views of the town in this book and elsewhere, see under folio 8 recto (D18855).
1
See Finberg 1909, II, p,651.
2
See Peter Faulkner ed., ‘Martello Towers in Kent’, Martello Towers, accessed 27 February 2020, https://martellotowers.co.uk/kent.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
September 2020

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Folkestone Harbour, with the Cliffs towards Copt Point 1825 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2020, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-folkestone-harbour-with-the-cliffs-towards-copt-point-r1202231, accessed 19 July 2025.