'Study for 'Greenwich Hospital', for Rogers's 'Poems'', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Study for 'Greenwich Hospital', for Rogers's 'Poems'

From Watercolours Related to Samuel Rogers's Poems

Date c.1830-2

MediumGraphite and watercolour on paper

Dimensionssupport: 194 x 245 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Reference

D27611

Turner Bequest CCLXXX 94

View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Study for ‘Greenwich Hospital’, for Rogers’s ‘Poems’ circa 1830–2

D27611
Turner Bequest CCLXXX 94

Pencil and watercolour, approximately 105 x 145 mm on white wove paper, 192 x 243 mm
Inscribed in pencil with short lines on or near the edges of the four sides of sheet
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘(94’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXX 94’ bottom right

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Exhibition history

References

This is a study for Greenwich Hospital, a finished vignette illustration for the 1834 edition of Rogers’s Poems (see Tate D27693; Turner Bequest CCLXXX 176). The two compositions are closely related. Both present a frontal view of the north façade of Greenwich Hospital with boats and naval pensioners in the foreground. In the finished version of the illustration Turner moved the large ship to the left side of the image and reduced the number of pensioners from two to one. The retired invalid sailors, many of whom resided at the hospital at Greenwich, would have been familiar figures to a contemporary audience.

The style and medium of this sketch are typical of Turner’s preparatory studies for Rogers’s Poems, which tend to be executed in pencil and light touches or washes of watercolour.

Verso:

Inscribed by an unknown hand in blue pencil ‘218’ centre left

Meredith Gamer
August 2006

Read this catalogue entry in full

This catalogue entry is part of: David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, December 2012.