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 > Nelson Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Marines, a Seaman and a Separate Sketch of a Man's Face 1805

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Marines, a Seaman and a Separate Sketch of a Man's Face’ 1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 23 Recto:
Marines, a Seaman and a Separate Sketch of a Man’s Face 1805
D05465
Turner Bequest LXXXIX 17
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 184 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Mr Pasco was carried down the G.W. [gangway] by 4 Marines wore boots’ above lower margin, ‘2 white’. ‘W Belts’ and ‘3... tail’ top right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘17’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LXXXIX 17’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
For another sketch of a marine, see folio 3 of the sketchbook (D05449; Turner Bequest LXXXIX 4). The sketch of a man’s face seems unrelated to the studies of marines’ and seamen’s uniform and to judge from Turner’s inscription might portray John Pasco, Nelson’s flag-lieutenant on Victory at Trafalgar, who was wounded in the right arm and taken below by a party of marines. Turner included Pasco being carried down the gangway from poop to quarterdeck in his picture Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory (Tate N00480;1 see Introduction to the sketchbook for the picture and related works), and ‘Lt Pascoe RN wounded’ is marked as number 4 in his accompanying key (Tate D08266; Turner Bequest CXXI K). A very slight sketch for Pasco and his helpers is on folio 11 (D05460; Turner Bequest LXXXIX 13). Turner’s note on folio 12 (D05462; Turner Bequest LXXXIX 14) that ‘4 Sailors carried some officer down about the time Ld N fell’ perhaps also refers to Pasco, or to Captain Adair of the Royal Marines, who was killed.
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.46 no.58 (pl.68).
Verso:
Blank

David Blayney Brown
March 2006

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Marines, a Seaman and a Separate Sketch of a Man’s Face 1805 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 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-marines-a-seaman-and-a-separate-sketch-of-a-mans-face-r1139275, accessed 20 April 2024.