Description
Martello Towers near Bexhill presents a lightly etched coastal scene, with a white cliff at the right and small people and boats near the lower left. Turner gives the Sussex shore a direct linear structure, leaving much of the paper pale around the established forms. The title identifies Martello towers near Bexhill, connecting the prospect with a coast shaped by defensive buildings as well as natural terrain.
Dated 1811, this impression is an etching before the first of four states, not a finished mezzotint version of the design. Turner is credited with both design and etching. The distinction allows the image to be encountered at a stage where line establishes the composition without the fuller tonal treatment associated with many plates in the series. Its appeal lies in that direct graphic structure, bringing architecture and shoreline together through an earlier phase of the printed image.
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the J. M. W. Turner collection.
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