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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Coastal View, Probably near Folkestone c.1821-2

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 25 Recto:
A Coastal View, Probably near Folkestone c.1821–2
D17249
Turner Bequest CXCVIII 25
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 187 mm
Stamped in black ‘CXCVIII – 25’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Here Turner records a rocky coastline and semi-circular cove shaped by a small headland extending out into the sea. Finberg asserts that this scene encompasses a coastal scene recorded near Folkestone in Kent.1 Presumably his identification of the landscape seems confident in light of preceding pages from folio 20 verso, many of which deal with the cliffs at Folkestone and towards Dover (folios 20 verso–21 verso, 22 verso–23 verso, and 24 verso; D17240–D17242, D17244–D17246, D17248).
The view is similar to a sketch from later in the sketchbook on folio 52 verso (D17293), the topographical sweep of the coastline and landmarks bearing resemblances. In the catalogue entry for the colour study Cliffs on the Coast, Possibly near Folkestone or in Cornwall of about 1830–5 (Tate D25185; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 63), Matthew Imms underlines the link between this later drawing in the present sketchbook and the tentatively identified cliffs in the colour study. Imms also draws attention to a possible parallel in the Ideas of Folkestone sketchbook of 1845 (Tate D35374; Turner Bequest CCCLVI 14).
1
Finberg 1909, I, p.604.
Verso:
Blank

Maud Whatley
January 2016

How to cite

Maud Whatley, ‘A Coastal View, Probably near Folkestone c.1821–2 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 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-a-coastal-view-probably-near-folkestone-r1184523, accessed 19 September 2024.