Oil on board
Tate Collection
Works with images
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Turner Bequest
Collection
Turner owned by Tate
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner-558" aria-label="More by Joseph Mallord William Turner" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Joseph Mallord William Turner</a>
Coast Scene with Buildings
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
adults
architecture
coast
figure
people
sea
seafront
seascapes and coasts
townscapes / man-made features
<p>In the 1840s Turner made some of his most transcendent and beautiful works in watercolour. He also experimented in this same style in a series of oils on board, as shown here. The effects of light, reflection and atmosphere continued to absorb him; accounting for the vast bulk of his subject matter and output in this period.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
paper unique oil board
26 May 2003 – 8 December 2003
2003-12-08
26 May 2003
2003-05-26
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-05-26
British Watercolours: Turner and his Contemporaries around 1840
Collection based display
20 March 2009 – 10 August 2009
2009-08-10
20 March 2009 – 10 August 2009
2009-08-10
2009-03-20
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-03-20
The Theatre of Colour: Turner Watercolours at the Museum of Modern Art, New York 1966
Collection based display
Coast Scene with Buildings
Accepted by the nation as part of the <a href="/search?gid=999999781" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Turner Bequest</a> 1856
<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text14">In the 1840s Turner made some of his </span><span class="text0">
most transcendent and beautiful works in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a>. He      also experimented in this same style in a series of oils on board, as shown      here. The effects of light, reflection and atmosphere continued to absorb      him; accounting for the vast bulk of his subject matter and output in this      period. </span>
</div>

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2004-08-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p>[from]<b> Nos. 487–500: Sketches of Coast and other Scenes, <i>c.</i> 1840–5?</b></p>
<p>THESE fourteen sketches on millboard were discovered in the early 1960s in a parcel among the works from the Turner Bequest transferred from the Tate Gallery to the British Museum in 1931; they had not been numbered or included in Finberg's 1909 <i>Inventory</i>. They fall into three groups according to size, approx. 10 1/2 × 12 in., 9 3/4 × 13 1/2 in. and 12 × 19 in., but form a homogeneous group technically and stylistically. Two further sketches from the same parcel are distinct in style, technique and the type of millboard used (see Nos. 485 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-red-sky-over-a-beach-d36676" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>D36676</span></a>] and 486 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-shore-scene-with-waves-and-breakwater-d36680" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>D36680</span></a>]). <i>Ship in a Storm</i> (No. 489 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-ship-in-a-storm-d36682" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>D36682</span></a>]) is close in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> to <i>Snow Storm—Steam-Boat off a Harbour Mouth</i>, exhibited in 1842 (see No. 398 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-snow-storm-steam-boat-off-a-harbours-mouth-n00530" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00530</span></a>]), while others from the group such as <i>Sunset seen from a Beach with Breakwater</i> (No. 497 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-sunset-seen-from-a-beach-with-breakwater-d36679" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>D36679</span></a>]) are the equivalent in oils of very late <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolours</span></a> such as those in the ‘Ambleteuse and Wimereux’ sketchbook of 1845 (CCCLVII). However, compositional resemblances help very little in dating Turner's late works and comparison between works in different <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/medium" title="Glossary definition for 'Medium'"><span>media</span></a> is equally fruitless.</p>
<p>Thirteen unspecified sketches from Nos 485–500 were first exhibited at the British Museum in 1962 (see under ‘Lit.’ below).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> <i>Sketch Books and Albums of Drawings, German Gothic and Renaissance Prints: Oil Sketches by J.M.W. Turner. Exhibition held in the Department of Prints and Drawings</i> 1962; ‘British Museum: Rediscovered Oil Sketches by J.M.W. Turner’, <i>Illustrated London News</i> 10 March 1962, p. 371.</p>
<p></p>
<p><b>487. </b>[<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-coast-scene-with-buildings-d36678" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>D36678</span></a>] <b>Coast Scene with Buildings</b> <i>c.</i>
1840–5?</p>
<p>THE BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON (1972.U.738)</p>
<p>Millboard, irregular, 12 × 18 3/4 (30·5 × 47·5)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> R.A. 1974–5 (469, repr.).</p>
<p>Similar in technique and support to the rest of this group and, though dated rather earlier than the rest when exhibited in 1974–5, almost certainly contemporary with them. Although the composition, with its architectural features, is comparable to some of the sketches on coarse <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a> probably painted at Rome in 1828 (see Nos. 302–17), the paler tonality supports a later dating.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, <i>The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner</i>, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults architecture coast figure people sea seafront seascapes and coasts townscapes / man-made features
M 1972 U738