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

Composed with the page inverted relative to the foliation of the sketchbook, these drawings appear to chart the continuation of a boat trip around the southern coast of Kent begun two pages previously on folio 3 recto (D17211).1 The towering height of the cliffs fill the page and gestural, erratic lines cascade down in an indication of jagged rocks.

There are two additional sketches here, made with the page turned vertically. The topmost of these is extremely brief, and amounts to an abbreviated impression of a particular cliff in profile. Eric Shanes has speculated whether the second of these vertical sketches, rendered in more detail and elaborating on the topography of the local coastline, might be a view of East Wear Bay in Folkestone.2 He relates it to one of a group of ‘colour beginnings’, titled Cliffs near Dieppe (Tate D25425; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 302) along with another, later cliff view in the present sketchbook, on folio 33 verso (D17263).3

Technical notes:

The yellow wash applied to the edges of the sketchbook is particularly evident here, having bled inwards slightly.