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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Ports of England c.1822-8 > 'Ports of England' Studies > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Town, from the Sea; possibly Margate c.1822-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Town, from the Sea; possibly Margate’ c.1822-8
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Town, from the Sea; possibly Margate c.1822–8
D25383
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 260
Watercolour on white wove paper, 194 x 278 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘260’
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXIII–260’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner scholar Eric Shanes proposes that this colour sketch is of Margate and as a result may relate to the Southern Coast or Ports of England view of that town of about 1822 and 1825 respectively.1 The linear plane of yellow wash used to render the headland does resonate with the warm tone of afternoon light in the final design of the Ports view. According to Shanes the profile of Hooper’s Mill, demolished in 1828, is visible on the horizon, though this is not obviously apparent.2
Shanes writes that this drawing bears stylistic similarities with other ‘colour beginnings’ and may have even been produced ‘during the same working session’ (see Tate D25365, D25393, D25410, D25422, D25426, D25437; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 243, 270, 287, 299, 303, 314).3
1
Shanes 1997, pp. 99 Appendix I ‘Margate’, 100 Appendix I ‘Ports of England Series’, 102 Appendix I ‘Southern Coast of England Series’. For colour reproductions of the Southern Coast and Ports views of Margate see Eric Shanes, Turner’s England 1810–38, London 1990, pp.61, no.37 and 136, no.108 respectively.
2
Shanes 1997, pp. 99 Appendix I ‘Margate’.
3
Shanes 1997, p.61, no.43.
Verso:
Inscribed in pencil ‘CCLXIII 260’ at top left.

Alice Rylance-Watson
March 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Town, from the Sea; possibly Margate c.1822–8 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-town-from-the-sea-possibly-margate-r1148229, accessed 18 April 2024.