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

This page seems to bear evidence of three sketches. The top and bottommost of these demonstrate simple, linear silhouettes of apparently coastal cliff forms, with architectural structures indicated towards the centre of each.

Across the middle of the page, a more detailed study explains Finberg’s identification: ‘Church and other buildings on coast’.1 A group of four buildings in close proximity to one another appear nestled into the hillside. Turner’s handling varies quite dramatically between the measured lines of the construction on the right, and the loose, disconnected form second from left. The Church of St Mary and St Eanswythe at Folkestone is visible slightly to the right of centre. The perspective suggests a westerly view, squashing the church into the foreshortened form illustrated here. For a list of other pages which include studies of the church, see the entry for folio 17 verso (D17235).

Technical notes:

The yellow wash that has been applied to the edges of the sketchbook is particularly evident here, having bled inwards onto the page at a point towards the right side of the top edge.