Exhibited in Turner's Gallery in 1809 together with other views of the Thames. Blythe Sands are off Sheerness, facing Canvey Island. Correspondence suggests that Turner offered the picture to his patron Sir John Leicester late in 1810, and is also said to have refused to sell it to Sir George Beaumont, who generally disliked his work. In later years the canvas was apparently used in Turner's house as a cat flap.