Oil paint on canvas
Kent
Tate Collection
Works with images
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Turner Bequest
Oil paintings
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>
Margate
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
adults
architecture
boat - non-specific
cliff
England
England, South East
England, Southern
figure
flag - non-specific
harbour
Kent
Margate - non-specific
mast
objects
people
places
religious and ceremonial
seascapes and coasts
society
sunset
times of the day
townscape, distant
townscapes / man-made features
transport: water
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
painting oil paint canvas
24 October 2003 – 25 January 2004
2004-01-25
24 October 2003 – 25 January 2004
2004-01-25
2003-10-24
Barber Institute of Fine Arts (Birmingham, UK)
http://www.barber.org.uk
2003-10-24
J.M.W Turner: The Sun Rising Through Vapour
Loan-out
10 April 2006 – 12 March 2007
2007-03-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2006-04-10
Impressions and Ideas Turner's Oil Sketches and Studies
Collection based display
15 November 2008 – 30 August 2009
2009-08-30
15 November 2008 – 15 February 2009
2009-02-15
2008-11-15
Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery (Nottingham, UK)
http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk
28 February 2009 – 3 May 2009
2009-05-03
2009-02-28
Ferens Art Gallery (Hull, UK)
http://www.hullcc.gov.uk/museumcollections
17 May 2009 – 30 August 2009
2009-08-30
2009-05-17
Hastings Museum and Art Gallery (Hastings, UK)
2008-11-15
Coasting; Bonington, Turner and their Contemporaries on the Shores of the Channel
Loan-out
28 April 2012 – 10 July 2016
2016-07-10
28 April 2012
2012-04-28
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-04-28
In The Studio
Collection based display
1 May 2016 – 8 January 2017
2017-01-08
4 May 2016 – 18 September 2016
2016-09-18
2016-05-04
Caumont Art Centre (Aix-en-Provence, France)
7 October 2016 – 8 January 2017
2017-01-08
2016-10-07
Turner Contemporary (Margate, UK)
2016-05-01
JMW Turner: From Shade and Darkness, to Light and Colour
Loan-out
16 October 2021 – 14 July 2023
2023-07-14
16 October 2021 – 6 March 2022
2022-03-06
2021-10-16
ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum (Aarhus, Denmark)
18 May 2022 – 11 September 2022
2022-09-11
2022-05-18
Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain)
http://www.mnac.es
8 October 2022 – 5 February 2023
2023-02-05
2022-10-08
National Gallery of Ireland (Dublin, Ireland)
http://www.nationalgallery.ie
3 March 2023 – 25 June 2023
2023-06-25
2023-03-03
Fondation Pierre Gianadda (Martigny, Switzerland)
2021-10-16
Turner Watercolours: Sun is God
Tate partnerships & programmes
Margate
support: 857 × 1162 mm
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
<p><b>174. </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-margate-n02700" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02700</span></a>]<b> Margate, Setting Sun</b> <i>c.</i>
1806–7
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (2700)
<br/>Canvas, 33 3/4 × 45 3/4 (85·5 × 116)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (? one of 219–35); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1910.</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Shanes 1981<sup>2</sup>, pp. 26–7.</p>
<p></p>
<p>The <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> seems to lie behind that of <i>St. Mawes at the Pilchard Season</i>, exhibited in Turner's gallery in 1812 (No. 123 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-st-mawes-at-the-pilchard-season-n00484" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00484</span></a>]) but the town shown appears to be different, one would guess on or near the Thames Estuary. Andrew Wilton has suggested Margate; <i>c.f.</i> particularly the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> in the ‘River and Margate’ sketchbook of <i>c.</i>
1806–9 identified by Finberg as probably Margate (XCIX-9 <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/r/recto-verso" title="Glossary definition for 'Recto / Verso'"><span>verso</span></a>) and also other drawings in the same book and in the ‘Gravesend and Margate’ sketchbook of <i>c.</i> 1832 (CCLXXIX). The ‘River and Margate’ sketchbook also contains a drawing of a rather similar harbour scene, annotated ‘Hastings Fish Market’ (XCIX-81, repr. Wilkinson 1974, p. 87; the oil <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> of the subject of 1810, No. 105, is not related).
<br/>
<br/>That the view is of Margate has been confirmed by Eric Shanes, who points to the presence on the skyline of Hooper's Mill, seen also in No. 78 and in two later <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> of <i>c.</i> 1822 and <i>c.</i> 1825 (Yale Center and Ashmolean Museum; Wilton 1979, pp. 353, 387–8, nos. 470 and 757, both repr., and Shanes <i>op. cit.</i>, pp. 26–7, 36, colour pls. 36 and 75). In our first edition this painting was catalogued as ‘Harbour Scene, probably Margate’.</p>
<p></p>
<p>[from]<b> Nos. 160–76: Large Thames Sketches <i>c.</i> 1806–7</b>
<br/>
<br/>THIS group of seventeen sketches on <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> from the Turner bequest, though carried to different degree of finish, are all similar in technique, being lightly painted over a dry chalky ground, and are all roughly similar in size save for <i>Sketch for ‘Harvest Dinner, Kingston Bank’</i>, which measures only 24 × 36 in. (No. 160 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-sketch-for-harvest-dinner-kingston-bank-n02696" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02696</span></a>]). This last was used for the painting exhibited at Turner's gallery in 1809 and again in 1810 (No. 90 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-harvest-dinner-kingston-bank-n00491" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00491</span></a>]). Others are more loosely related to finished oil paintings exhibited in 1808, 1809 and 1810. A number of them are also related to drawings in the ‘Thames from Reading to Walton’ sketchbook, datable <i>c.</i> 1806 (XCV; pp. 22–3 are sketches for the pictures of Walton Bridges, paid for early in 1807, see Nos. 60 and 63); <i>c.f.</i> for example pp. 31 and 37 with No. 173 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-washing-sheep-n02699" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02699</span></a>], and p. 35 with No. 172 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-willows-beside-a-stream-n02706" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02706</span></a>]; there is a different view of Goring Church, the subject of No. 161 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-goring-mill-and-church-n02704" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02704</span></a>], on p. 19. The composition of one example, <i>Trees beside a River, with a Bridge in the Middle Distance</i> (No. 169 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-trees-beside-the-river-with-bridge-in-the-middle-distance-n02692" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02692</span></a>]), is very close to a drawing in the rather earlier ‘Studies for Pictures; Isleworth’ sketchbook, sandwiched between lists of <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/classicism" title="Glossary definition for 'Classicism'"><span>classical</span></a> and Biblical subjects (XC-55 verso and 56): for the evidence for dating this sketchbook <i>c.</i> 1804–5 see Nos. 149 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-windsor-castle-from-the-thames-t03870" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T03870</span></a>] and 169 [<span>N02692</span>].
<br/>
<br/>There is reason to suppose that, contrary to Turner's usual practice, some if not all of these sketches were at least begun out-of-doors. Thornbury prints some reminiscences of the son of Turner's ‘oldest friend the Rev. Mr. Trimmer’, who had been out fishing with Turner when a child. ‘He had a boat at Richmond ... From his boat he painted on a large canvas direct from Nature. Till you have seen these sketches, you know nothing of Turner's powers. There are about two score of these large subjects, rolled up, and now national property ... There is a red sunset (simply the sky) among the rolls’. The last, probably the sadly darkened <i>Sunset</i> (No. 525 [<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-n01876" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01876</span></a>]), is different in character from the works under discussion and is probably later, but the folded and battered condition of many of the Thames sketches such as Nos. 171[<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-river-scene-with-weir-in-middle-distance-n02703" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02703</span></a>] and 173 [<span>N02699</span>] supports the identification with the works mentioned by Trimmer, as does the fact that the sketches seem to have been unstretched when they came to be relined early this century; indeed, some if not all may never have been stretched, No. 167 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-weir-and-cattle-n02705" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02705</span></a>] for instance showing none of the usual pulling at the edges from the nails attaching a canvas to a stretcher. As in the case of two later groups of sketches on canvas, those painted in the Isle of Wight in 1827 (Nos. 260–268 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-sketch-for-east-cowes-castle-the-regatta-beating-to-windward-no-1-n01995" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01995</span></a>-<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-study-of-sea-and-sky-isle-of-wight-n02001" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02001</span></a>]) and those done in Rome 1828–9 (Nos. 302–317), Turner may have painted on rolls of canvas, working them over a frame to use different areas as required. If these sketches were always on loose canvases they may have been the ‘Roll of 17 separate Canvasses’, nos. 219 to 235 in the inventory of the Turner Bequest. All but one were first numbered, restored and put on public exhibition in 1910; No. 165 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-the-thames-glimpsed-between-trees-possibly-at-kew-bridge-n05519" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05519</span></a>], which is in considerably worse condition, was not even numbered until 1944.
<br/>
<br/>Though Turner did not complete his own cottage at Twickenham, across the river from Richmond, until 1813, he already had a second home at Isleworth, not that much further from Richmond, by 23 May 1805 (see Youngblood <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 34 n. 9), and at Upper Mall, Hammersmith probably from late 1806 until 1811, and he could well have had a boat at Richmond during all this period. John Gage suggested in 1969 that this group of sketches was executed over a number of years from about 1807 to as late as <i>Crossing the Brook</i>, exhibited in 1815 (No. 130 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-crossing-the-brook-n00497" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00497</span></a>]); however in 1983 he accepted our dating for two of the sketches made on the Thames above London although dating one of the Thames estuary sketches (No. 176, <i>q.v </i>[<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-fishermen-and-boats-n02698" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02698</span></a>].) to <i>c.</i> 1809. It is difficult to be sure of Turner's methods but the evidence of the sketchbooks and also of the groups of oil sketches that he is known to have painted on rolls of canvas, at Cowes in 1827 (Nos. 260–8 [<span>N01995</span>-<span>N02001</span>]) and in and around Rome in 1828 (Nos. 302–17) suggest that he was more likely to execute a whole run of sketches, varying in execution and degree of finish to a considerable extent, in a short time than to spread such series over periods of years. It seems likely therefore that Turner only used this rather unusual size and technique for this sort of sketch as a limited experiment.</p>
<p>
<br/><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
2004-09-23T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults architecture boat - non-specific cliff England England, South East England, Southern figure flag - non-specific harbour Kent Margate - non-specific mast objects people places religious and ceremonial seascapes and coasts society sunset times of the day townscape, distant townscapes / man-made features transport: water UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions