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

This work is one of a group of more than thirty watercolour sketches in the Turner Bequest that appear to be preparatory studies for Campbell’s Poetical Works. They are all painted on cheap, lightweight paper and executed in a rough, loose style. In this tempestuous seascape scene, the mast of a boat pitched dramatically to one side, is just visible on the far right-hand side of the study. This detail tentatively links the composition to Turner’s finished vignette illustration for Lord Ullin’s Daughter circa 1835 (National Gallery of Scotland).1 Campbell’s poem is a tragic tale of a heroine who drowns at sea during an attempt to elope with her secret lover. Turner’s finished illustration depicts the ill-fated couple awaiting the ferry that will lead to their deaths, and the configuration of the beleaguered vessel in the background may be the same as that represented in the study. In particular, the storm clouds amassing in the sky may reflect the following lines:

Jan Piggott has identified the mass in the centre of the composition as an island although it could also be part of a headland.2

There are a number of other works in the Turner Bequest that may also relate to Lord Ullin’s Daughter (see Tate D27557, D27558, D27581, D27588, D27638; Turner Bequest CCLXXX 40, 41, 64, 71, 121). In particular there is a resemblance between the palette, mood and style of this study and that of the Tate D27557; Turner Bequest CCLXXX 40.

The work was once part of a parcel of studies described by John Ruskin as ‘A.B. 40. PO. Vignette beginnings, once on a roll. Worthless’.3 For an explanation of his meaning for ‘once on a roll’ see the technical notes above. Finberg records how Ruskin later described his phrasing in a letter to Ralph Nicholson Wornum as ‘horrible’, adding ‘I never meant it to be permanent’.4

Technical notes
Peter Bower has noted that this study is made on off-white low-grade machine-made cartridge paper. The maker is unknown and there is no watermark. This paper would have been relatively cheap to buy and could have been purchased from a colourman, cut off from a roll to the desired size. Turner has used the ‘felt’ side of the paper which has slightly more texture than the ‘wire’ side, allowing better adhesion of pigment and graphite to the surface of the sheet. Many of Turner’s vignette studies were made on a similar grade of machine-made paper, and the artist employed the ‘felt’ side on all of them.5

Verso:

Inscribed by unknown hands in pencil ‘AB 40 P | O’ bottom right