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

This is a watercolour sketch of various sailing-boats moored or perhaps in transit at Folkestone harbour. Rendered in purple-brown wash, the curving narrow profile of masts and sails appear silhouetted against the background. Turner has used the same wash to mark out much of the foreground, which is punctured towards the bottom by a diagonal sequence of red daubs of paint. The obscure form of a steamboat is rendered in pale yellow, its ubiquitous trail of steam dispersing into the overcast sky. For other works featuring steamboats in this sketchbook see folios 2, 3 and 18 recto (D35363, D35364, D35380).