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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Kent Coast and Whaling c.1844-5 > Ideas of Folkestone Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Folkestone 1845

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Folkestone’ 1845
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 20 Recto:
Folkestone 1845
D35382
Turner Bequest CCCLVI 21
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 230 x 328 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘F[?k]’ i.e. ‘Folkestone’ bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘21’ bottom right
Blind stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCLVI–21’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Here Turner has largely obscured the rough pencil under-sketch of a headland and beach with vigorously applied wash in muted brown, gold, grey, and blue. These distinct areas of colour, which are of similar saturation, have the effect of contracting and flattening the composition, diminishing a sense of aerial recession. Turner has inscribed ‘F[?k]’ in pencil at the bottom right, presumably shorthand for Folkestone.
Technical notes:
What appears to be Turner’s palm print in brown pigment can be seen on the folio 19 verso (D35381) opposite. There is some dark grey pigment close to the gutter of the sketchbook on that page which does not seem to be related to the drawing here.

Alice Rylance-Watson
February 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Folkestone 1845 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, June 2013, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-folkestone-r1142160, accessed 19 April 2024.