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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Switzerland 1802 > Small Calais Pier Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Sunset over the Sea 1802

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sunset over the Sea’ 1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 12 Recto:
Sunset over the Sea 1802
D04202
Turner Bequest LXXI 10
Pencil, with some scratching and stopping out, on paper prepared with a reddish brown wash, 112 x 187 mm
Stamped in black ‘LXXI 10’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Numbered by Finberg as folio 10 of this book, this has since been rebound as folio 12. Turner’s sketch exploits the particularly strong preparatory tinting of the paper, the disc and glow of the sun being vigorously scratched out. Notwithstanding Finberg, the subject is presumably sunset, as later painted by Turner from a similar viewpoint in Calais Sands, Low Water, Poissards Collecting Bait, shown at the Royal Academy in 1830 (Bury Art Gallery and Museum).1
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.187–8 no.334 (pl.336).
Verso:
Pencil offset of a tower, from folio 13 of this sketchbook (D04203).

David Blayney Brown
April 2003

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Sunset over the Sea 1802 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2003, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-sunset-over-the-sea-r1133758, accessed 19 April 2024.