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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Second Italian Tour 1828-9 > Roman and French Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Seafront at Brighton, with the ?Chain Pier c.1828

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Seafront at Brighton, with the ?Chain Pier’ c.1828
Folio 5 Recto:
The Seafront at Brighton, with the ?Chain Pier c.1828
D21860
Turner Bequest CCXXXVII 5
Pencil on white wove paper, 71 x 88 mm
Inscribed in red ink ‘5’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXVII – 5’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Ian Warrell has identified this rough study as one of several coastal views of Brighton; it therefore has no relation to Turner’s 1828–9 tour of France and Italy.1 This example features two slight outlines of the Brighton seafront, possibly featuring the chain pier in the distance. Constructed in 1823, the Royal Suspension Chain Pier was a relatively new addition to the landscape at the time of Turner’s visit.2 A path leads towards the foreground, and a row of buildings appears to the right. Both studies were executed with the sketchbook inverted.
Precisely when Turner visited Brighton before embarking on his Italian tour remains unclear. See folios 3 verso–5 verso and 61 recto–62 recto (D21857–D21860, D21961–D21963) for views in this sketchbook identified of the town.

Hannah Kaspar
December 2024

1
Warrell 1997, p.212.
2
‘World Above the Waves: Brighton’s Chain Pier’, Brighton & Hove Museums, accessed 29 November 2024, https://brightonmuseums.org.uk/discovery/history-stories/world-above-the-waves-brightons-chain-pier/.

How to cite

Hannah Kaspar, ‘The Seafront at Brighton, with the ?Chain Pier c.1828’, catalogue entry, December 2024, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2025, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/the-seafront-at-brighton-with-the-chain-pier-r1210418, accessed 15 April 2025.