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

With the page turned horizontally, the view is west from the beach outside Folkestone harbour, as tentatively suggested by Finberg.1 The eastern pier runs towards the left in the middle distance, with St Mary and St Eanswythe’s Church on the cliff beyond. The harbour was later considerably expanded and redeveloped, and the sandstone cliffs in the foreground are now shored up by an arcaded concrete promenade.

Along with that on the recto (D18861), the prospect is comparable with an undated watercolour of Fishing Boats on Folkestone Beach, Kent (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin),2 perhaps based more directly on the closer view on folio 10 verso (D18860), under which the watercolour and its possible context are discussed. The viewpoint here appears higher, suggesting that Turner had climbed from the beach. Likely fortuitously, the scene is similar in William Daniell’s 1823 aquatint Folkestone, Kent (Tate impression: T02954) from A Voyage Round Great Britain. Turner seems to have continued to the top and returned towards the town along the cliffs, as the elevated viewpoint on folio 12 recto opposite (D18863) suggests.

This is among numerous sketches showing aspects of the harbour. For Turner’s other Folkestone views in this sketchbook and elsewhere, see under the view in the same direction from within the harbour on folio 8 recto (D18855).