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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Southern Coast Colour Studies c.1811-28 > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Deal or Brighton from the Sea c.1824-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Deal or Brighton from the Sea’ c.1824-8
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
?Deal or Brighton from the Sea c.1824–8
D25426
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 303
Watercolour on white wove paper, 149 x 250 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram below right of centre
Inscribed in red ink ‘303 | (303)’ bottom right
Inscribed in pencil ‘CCLXIII’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXIII – 303’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Although this study of dark clouds over a distant coast gives no indication of a particular setting. Eric Shanes has suggested that it may relate to either of two watercolours among Turner’s Southern Coast designs (see the Introduction to this section).1 One of Brighton made in about 1824 (Royal Pavilion and Museums, Brighton and Hove),2 was engraved in 1825 as Brightonhelmston, Sussex (Tate impressions: T04420–T04421, T05288–T05996); another, Deal, Kent of about 1825 (Deal Town Council), 3 was engraved in 1826 (T04422, T05236–T05237, T05998). They show the towns from off shore across choppy seas; the Brighton view has a bright, clearing sky with a rainbow, but the backdrop to Deal is dark with cloud over a bright horizon and low, sunlit buildings which may correspond to the pale ochre area towards the left here.
Other studies linked to Brighton or Deal in the present section are Tate D25410, D25437 and D36117 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 287, 314, CCCLXIV 270). Tate D25477 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 354) may represent an idea for a Southern Coast composition including Walmer Castle, near Deal.
1
See Shanes 1997, p.102.
2
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.354 no.479.
3
Ibid., p.355 no.481.
Technical notes:
Eric Shanes has drawn stylistic parallels between this study and numerous other ‘colour beginnings’ of coastal subjects (Tate D25365, D25383, D25393, D25410, D25422, D25437, D25477, D36117; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 243, 260, 270, 287, 299, 314, 354, CCCLXIV 270), even suggesting they ‘may have been created during the same session of work’ in about 1825,1 although at the same time he suggests that the present work began as part of a larger sheet watermarked 1828.2 It has been dated here in accordance with its possible Southern Coast while allowing for this apparent contradiction.
1
Shanes 1997, p.61
2
See ibid., pp.94, 101.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed by ?Turner in pencil ‘B’ towards top right; inscribed by ?John Ruskin in pencil ‘AB [...] P | O’ towards bottom right; inscribed in pencil ‘cclxiii.303’ bottom right.

Matthew Imms
July 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?Deal or Brighton from the Sea c.1824–8 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-deal-or-brighton-from-the-sea-r1184411, accessed 25 April 2024.