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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and French ... > Holland Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A View along the English Channel towards Folkestone, from the Cliffs 1825

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A View along the English Channel towards Folkestone, from the Cliffs’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 3 Recto:
A View along the English Channel towards Folkestone, from the Cliffs 1825
D18845
Turner Bequest CCXIV 3
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 155 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘3’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXIV – 3’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, the view is from the Channel cliffs west of Dover (see under folio 2 recto; D18843), looking west-south-west across East Wear Bay towards Folkestone (see under folio 8 recto; D18855), with the tower of St Mary and St Eanswythe’s Church in the distance. The sketch is one of a short sequence progressing the seven miles or so westwards between the towns; erosion and today’s coastal dual carriageway make the specific viewpoints difficult to establish.
The small building with a mast towards the right is presumably one of the coastguard look-outs marked on maps of the time, and is shown nearer the foreground on the verso (D18846), and nearer again on folio 4 recto (D18847).

Matthew Imms
September 2020

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A View along the English Channel towards Folkestone, from the Cliffs 1825 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2020, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-view-along-the-english-channel-towards-folkestone-from-the-r1202197, accessed 29 May 2024.