Seascape with Distant Coast
- Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner
- Date: c.1840
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 914 x 1219 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Seascape with Distant Coast” by Joseph Mallord William Turner, painted around 1840. It’s one of the unfinished sea studies Turner left behind after his death. You can see how he laid out light and shadow, but no figures or a clear scene yet – it’s a snapshot of his planning stage. The top‑right corner holds a curious set of letters – “M c M N Ns T Ts” – written before the sky dried, and its meaning remains a mystery. Turner could have turned this sketch into anything from a stormy horizon to a calm harbor. The canvas is about 36 by 48 inches, oil on canvas, and shows traces of wet colour still blending, plus some loss along the right edge. It’s part of the Turner Bequest that entered the national collection in 1856, and it’s on display in the Experiments on Canvas wing. It offers a rare peek at how Turner built his iconic atmospheres, layer by layer, before the final vision took shape.
See it in person
Seascape with Distant Coast is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
