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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Switzerland 1802 > Small Calais Pier Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Two Fishing Boats Seen from the Stern; Four Men in the Boat at Left 1802

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Two Fishing Boats Seen from the Stern; Four Men in the Boat at Left’ 1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 1 Recto:
Two Fishing Boats Seen from the Stern; Four Men in the Boat at Left 1802
D04192
Turner Bequest LXXI 1
Pencil on wove paper prepared with a grey wash, 112 x 187 mm
Stamped in black ‘LXXI 1’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg recorded an inscription in white chalk, ‘Back’, which is no longer visible, presumably due to the rebinding of the book. This group of boats and figures was a possible source for the composition of Fishing Boats Entering Calais Harbour probably painted in 1803 (Frick Collection, New York),1 although Turner gave the boats in the picture a sharper list. Professor Bachrach has noted Turner’s likely use of this sketchbook for this picture without citing specific sketches.2 Perhaps also related to the oil are drawings in the Studies for Pictures sketchbook (Tate D04110, D04120; Turner Bequest LXIX 96, 105).
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.108 no.142 (pl.147).
2
A.G.H. Bachrach, Turner’s Holland, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1994, p.32.
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
April 2003

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Two Fishing Boats Seen from the Stern; Four Men in the Boat at Left 1802 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2003, 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-fishing-boats-seen-from-the-stern-four-men-in-the-boat-r1133746, accessed 26 April 2024.