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

Perhaps taking advantage of the extra thickness provided by the paper of the sketchbook’s inside cover, Turner has here worked long strokes of intense pigment onto an especially water-saturated surface to create a panoramic sea view. Pale green washes in the lower half of the sheet suggest shallow waters over sand, grading vertically to the deep blue of the sea. A wedge of scratchy blue strokes to the right may represent a reef of rocks stretching out onto the sands, or possibly a pier. In the sky, long dry diagonal strokes of blue dragged from left to right are succeeded by a row of fat round dabs of the brush to imply troubled skies.