Martin did a number of versions of this portrait with varied backgrounds. The first seems to have been that dated 1844 sold at Sotheby's 15 March 1990, lot 58, repr. in colour and inscribed 'sketch'd from Life 1844 and kindly signed by J.M.W.T. C.Martin'. A soft-ground etching exists and was published in the Illustrated London News for 10 May 1845, p.292 (see R. Walker, 'Portraits of J.M.W. Turner', Turner Studies, vol III, no.1, Summer 1983, pp. 28-9 under no. 34). Most of the replicas also bear a form of signature, usually in pencil gone over in ink, but given that Turner was notoriously reluctant to have his portrait taken it seems somewhat unlikely that he signed them himself.
This version is unique in that it shows Turner standing on a beach with the sea behind