J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Vignette watercolours c.1826-1843 > Watercolours Related to The Poetical ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Vignette Study for 'The Andes Coast', for Campbell's 'Poetical Works' c.1835-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Vignette Study for 'The Andes Coast', for Campbell's 'Poetical Works'’ c.1835-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Vignette Study for ‘The Andes Coast’, for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’ circa 1835–6
D27654
Turner Bequest CCLXXX 137
Pencil and watercolour, approximately 100 x 110 mm on white wove paper, 250 x 199 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXX’ bottom right below vignette and ‘CCLXXX 137’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This watercolour sketch of a distant ship sailing in calm blue waters has been identified by Jan Piggott as a preparatory study for The Andes Coast circa 1835 (National Gallery of Scotland),1 a vignette illustration designed by Turner for Edward Moxon’s 1837 edition of Thomas Campbell’s Poetical Works.2 The finished watercolour was engraved by Edward Goodall and published to accompany the poem ‘The Pleasures of Hope’.3
There are eight possible vignette studies related to The Andes Coast, most of which feature the same motif of a ship sailing amidst a stormy sea (see Tate D27524; Turner Bequest CCLXXX 7). This example, however, depicts a far more tranquil, halcyon scene. Unlike the beleaguered vessel tossed by the turbulent waves of the final version, this ship is silhouetted against a flat, still horizon. The white moon also appears on the opposite side of the composition although Turner has used the same palette for the mountainous backdrop of the coastline beyond.
1
Piggott 1993, p.96.
2
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, no.1272; reproduced in colour in Mungo Campbell, A Complete Catalogue of Works by Turner in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh 1993, p.55.
3
W.G. Rawlinson, The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., vol.II, London 1913, no.614. There is one impression in Tate’s collection (T04766).
Technical notes:
Like many of the works which were displayed as part of the National Gallery’s loan collections during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries this watercolour has suffered fading due to overexposure.
Verso:
Inscribed by an unknown hand in pencil ‘137 ? CCLXXX’ top right

Meredith Gamer
August 2006

How to cite

Meredith Gamer, ‘Vignette Study for ‘The Andes Coast’, for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’ c.1835–6 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2006, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-vignette-study-for-the-andes-coast-for-campbells-poetical-r1133398, accessed 18 April 2024.