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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Marine subjects c.1803-14 > Spithead Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Men-of-War and Smaller Boats in Portsmouth Harbour 1807

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Men-of-War and Smaller Boats in Portsmouth Harbour’ 1807
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 31 Recto:
Men-of-War and Smaller Boats in Portsmouth Harbour 1807
D06549
Turner Bequest C 30
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 118 x 187 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘30’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘C 30’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Here, ships probably including prizes from the Danish fleet seized by the British at Copenhagen
seem to have entered Portsmouth Harbour and are surrounded by smaller boats that have set out to greet them. See Introduction to the sketchbook for the historical background. There is a very slight extension of this subject on folio 30 verso (D40612).
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
May 2006

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Men-of-War and Smaller Boats in Portsmouth Harbour 1807 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2006, 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-men-of-war-and-smaller-boats-in-portsmouth-harbour-r1139077, accessed 25 April 2024.