'The Royal Squadron at Anchor', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

The Royal Squadron at Anchor

From King's Visit to Edinburgh Sketchbook

Turner Bequest CC

Date 1822

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 114 x 187 mm

Collection

Tate

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

Reference

D17592

Turner Bequest CC 50 a

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

Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the King's Visit to Edinburgh Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 50 Verso:

The Royal Squadron at Anchor 1822

D17592
Turner Bequest CC 50a

Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 187 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘14’ ‘9’ centre
Blindstamped with the Turner Bequest stamp bottom right

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

With the sketchbook inverted is a sketch of two vessels, belonging to the royal squadron, and anchored at Leith Roads. Turner made about forty-five sketches of shipping at Leith (see George IV’s Visit to Edinburgh 1822 Introduction), and this is an example of one of his more careful, diagrammatic drawing which records the different boats in the squadron. The two three-masted boats are shown without the flags and bunting that adorned their rigging on 15 August when the King disembarked at Leith, so they may have been made either on the 14th when they had just arrived or later in the visit. The inscriptions, ‘14’ and ‘9’, presumably refer to measurements of boat parts.

The sketch continues, or a second similar sketch is made, on folio 51 (D17593) where there are four more boats.

Thomas Ardill
August 2008

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.