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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Autumn Tour of Northern France 1845 > Dieppe and Kent Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Margate from the Harbour, with Droit House 1845

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Margate from the Harbour, with Droit House’ 1845
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 99 Verso:
Margate from the Harbour, with Droit House 1845
D35666
Turner Bequest CCCLXI 99a
Pencil on white wove paper, 86 x 111 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This slight sketch appears to show Droit House, on the quayside beside Margate’s pier, with the town rising to the east beyond, above where the Turner Contemporary gallery now stands.
The town had long been Turner’s base in Kent, particularly after his widowed landlady there, Mrs Booth, became his companion in later years; see the Introduction to the ‘Margate, London and Surrey c.1829–45’ section of this catalogue. Droit House appears again on folio 108 recto (D35683), seen from the vicinity of Mrs Booth’s house. The studies of the sun and clouds over the sea on folios 105 recto–107 verso (D35677–D35782) and inside the back cover (D41151) were perhaps all made from there too.
Slight coastal studies on folios 25 verso and 26 recto (D35531–D35532) may also include Margate.

Matthew Imms
September 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Margate from the Harbour, with Droit House 1845 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-margate-from-the-harbour-with-droit-house-r1184081, accessed 31 January 2025.