J.M.W. Turner’s Arresting Watercolour Sunrise over the Sea

London Capturing the enigmatic fleeting beauty of changing sunlight celebrated across cultures and across time, Sunrise over the Sea, perhaps at Margate by Joseph Mallord William Turner, R.A. (1775-1851) is a quietly hypnotic highlight in the Old Master and British Drawings and Watercolours sale on 4 July, during Classic Week London (estimate: £600,000-800,000). It is offered from the collection of the late Walter Brandt, one of the most prolific and discerning collectors of British Watercolours in the latter half of the 20th Century and brother of the acclaimed photographer Bill Brandt. In exceptional condition, with interesting provenance – having been owned by Turner’s landlady in Margate, the twice-widowed Sophia Caroline Booth (1798-1875) – this watercolour provides a wonderful example of a late Turner watercolour, and an aesthetic link to the Modern British Art which began Walter Brandt’s collecting journey. It will be on public view at Christie’s New York from 10 to 14 June before being part of the Classic Week pre-sale exhibition in London, on view from 1 to 4 July.