Cricket on the Goodwin Sands
c. 1830s Yale Center for British Art
About this artwork
A sketch executed in pastel on grey paper depicting figures gathered on a beach, likely intended as a study of coastal life. The Goodwin Sands, located off the coast of Kent, England, was a frequent subject for the artist due to its dangerous reputation for shipwrecks.
Did you know?
J. M. W. Turner, often known as the 'painter of light,' frequently visited coastal areas like the Goodwin Sands to capture the transient nature of weather and the sea. The stark contrast between the leisure of a cricket match and the notoriously treacherous nature of these shifting sandbanks—the site of countless shipwrecks—highlights the artist's fascination with the juxtaposition of human activity against the power of the natural environment.
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Cricket on the Goodwin Sands
J. M. W. Turner, c. 1830s