Line Fishing, Off Hastings

Turner's Line Fishing, Off Hastings (c. 1835) depicts the small-boat commercial fishing industry that sustained Hastings and other Sussex fishing communities along the English Channel coast. Hastings's fishing fleet, operating from the beach rather than a harbor, was distinctive in using the tarred black net-drying sheds that remained characteristic of the town into the twentieth century. Turner's attention to working maritime subjects — not the grand vessels of naval painting but the small boats of coastal fishing — reflected both his democratic interest in the full range of maritime life and his artistic interest in the specific light and weather of the English Channel. The Channel's changeable grey-green light required different atmospheric treatment from the golden Mediterranean scenes he also painted.

The fishing boats are suggested with minimal detail against the vast expanse of sea and sky. Turner's handling of coastal atmosphere — the moisture-laden air, the shifting light — creates a unified envelope of color and light.