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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Thames sketchbooks c.1804-14 > Studies for Pictures: Isleworth ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Classical Harbour 1805

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Classical Harbour’ 1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 50 Verso:
A Classical Harbour 1805
D05570
Turner Bequest XC 50a
Pen and ink on off-white wove paper, prepared with a grey wash, 150 x 258 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
See note to folio 1 of the sketchbook (D05491) for its various composition studies of an ancient seaport with figures arriving or departing. This version has some similarities to the coloured study on folio 49 verso (D05568), and Finberg thought that both and especially the present one showed similarities to Dido Building Carthage (National Gallery, London),1 but this was probably not foreseen by Turner. Here, the arch seen in folio 49 verso is replaced by a round building.

David Blayney Brown
August 2007

1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.94–6 no.131 (pl.133).

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘A Classical Harbour 1805 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2007, 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-a-classical-harbour-r1129884, accessed 27 April 2024.