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 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Coastal Scene, possibly Folkestone c.1822-3

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Coastal Scene, possibly Folkestone’ c.1822-3
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 12 Recto
Coastal Scene, possibly Folkestone c.1822–3
D17731
Turner Bequest CCII 12
Watercolour on white wove paper, 257 x 178 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘12’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCII–12’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Rendered with a muted palette of dilute grey, blue and a little yellow, the profile of a fortification can be seen atop a headland and beneath it a settlement sketched out with vague and swift line. A breakwater, filled in with grey wash, juts out into the water. A stroke of dilute yellow gives a fleeting impression of a beach.
This coastal scene is probably related to the drawing on the previous folio (Tate D17730; Turner Bequest CCII 11). The composition of the headland is similar to that in Turner’s finished watercolour Folkestone from the Sea of about 1823–4 produced for the Marine Views series (Tate D18158; Turner Bequest CCVIII Y).1 There is a loose colour sketch for this watercolour of about the same date (Tate D25480; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 357).
1
See also Eric Shanes, Turner’s England 1810–38, London 1990, pp.120–1, no.95 (colour).
Verso:
Blank

Alice Rylance-Watson
March 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Coastal Scene, possibly Folkestone c.1822–3 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-coastal-scene-possibly-folkestone-r1148301, accessed 26 April 2024.