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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Brighton and Copies from Wilson 1796-7 > Wilson Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Sunset (?or Moonrise) over a Calm Sea with a Sailing Vessel, and the Coast of Kent with Reculver Church in the Distance 1796-7

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sunset (?or Moonrise) over a Calm Sea with a Sailing Vessel, and the Coast of Kent with Reculver Church in the Distance’ 1796-7
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 56 Verso:
Sunset (?or Moonrise) over a Calm Sea with a Sailing Vessel, and the Coast of Kent with Reculver Church in the Distance 1796–7
D01231
Turner Bequest XXXVII 114
Watercolour and gouache on blue laid wrapping paper prepared with a red-brown wash, 93 x 113 mm
Stamped in black ‘XXXVII – 114’ bottom right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
It has been assumed that this study, made with the page turned horizontally, shows a sunset; but it is equally likely to show the grand rise of a full moon, which would be more consistent with the eastward looking view here: the north coast of Kent on the right, and the estuary of the Thames, with perhaps a portion of the Essex coast to the left. This is the last of a sequence of subjects presumably made around Margate; see under folio 52 verso (D01223; Turner Bequest XXXVII 106).
For Reculver see the sketchbook’s Introduction and another view of the church in the contemporary Studies near Brighton sketchbook (Tate D00731; Turner Bequest XXX 2).

Andrew Wilton
September 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Sunset (?or Moonrise) over a Calm Sea with a Sailing Vessel, and the Coast of Kent with Reculver Church in the Distance 1796–7 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-sunset-or-moonrise-over-a-calm-sea-with-a-sailing-vessel-and-r1149921, accessed 12 May 2024.