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 > River and Margate Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Two Views of a Boat c.1805-9

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Two Views of a Boat’ c.1805-9
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 88 Verso:
Two Views of a Boat circa 1805–9
D06508
Turner Bequest XCIX 84a
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 115 x 190 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the sketchbook inverted. At upper right of the sketch is the profile of the hull, probably the stern, and below the port side, showing a single mast well to the fore.
Other plans and diagrams and drawings apparently for similar boats in this sketchbook are folios 89 recto and verso, 90 verso and inside back cover (D06509; Turner Bequest XCIX 85, D06510;Turner Bequest XCIX 85a, D06512; Turner Bequest XCIX 86a,
In view of the prices of sails and other fittings noted on 90 verso, Turner must be planning and costing work on a boat for himself. Together, these indicate a single-masted dinghy with a gaff rig, more practical for sailing on the Thames than the lateen-rigged, rather Mediterranean-looking vessel envisioned in the contemporary Wey,Guildford sketchbook (Tate D06190–D06193; Turner bequest XCVIII 7a–9).

David Blayney Brown
March 2009

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Two Views of a Boat c.1805–9 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2009, 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-two-views-of-a-boat-r1130704, accessed 26 April 2024.