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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > West Country 1811 > Ivy Bridge to Penzance Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Hulks, Probably on the Hamoaze 1811

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Hulks, Probably on the Hamoaze’ 1811
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 8 Recto:
Hulks, Probably on the Hamoaze 1811
D08872
Turner Bequest CXXV 7
Pencil on white wove paper, 166 x 208 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘7’ bottom right (now very faint)
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXV – 7’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
There may be tentative indications of a shoreline in the distance. The scene is probably the Hamoaze (the Tamar Estuary) west of Plymouth. The two hulks to the left appear to have retained their mainmasts, and a ship in full sail is cursorily indicated to the right. Finberg relates this sketch and that on folio 7 recto (D08871; CXXV 6)1 to the oil painting Hulks on the Tamar, possibly exhibited at Turner’s gallery in 1812 (Tate T03881; displayed at Petworth House, West Sussex).2 However, as Butlin and Joll observe, ‘the connection ... seems most doubtful.’3
This is one of a series of sketches of Plymouth and nearby districts, running from folio 3 recto (D08866; CXXV 2) to folio 14 recto (D08880; CXXV 13); see the entry for the first of these for other Plymouth views.
1
Finberg 1909, I, p.355.
2
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.84–5 no.119, pl.126.
3
Ibid., p.85.
Verso:
Blank, save for some offsetting from the drawing opposite (D08873; CXXV 8).

Matthew Imms
February 2011

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Hulks, Probably on the Hamoaze 1811 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2011, 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-hulks-probably-on-the-hamoaze-r1137353, accessed 24 April 2024.