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 Bow and Stern of a Man-of-war 1805

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Bow and Stern of a Man-of-war’ 1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 26 Recto:
Bow and Stern of a Man-of-war 1805
D05468
Turner Bequest LXXXIX 19
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 184 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘R’ within ship’s figurehead
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘19’ top left, inverted
Stamped in black ‘LXXXIX 19’ top left, inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the sketchbook inverted. The ship’s figurehead is a lion. On folio 9 verso of the sketchbook (D05456) Turner notes that an unknown ship with ‘a white Lion Head’ had raked the Victory during the Battle of Trafalgar. This may have been the French flagship Bucentaure which had a carved lion behind her bowsprit or whose figurehead, a white bucentaur (half man, half ox), could have been mistaken for a lion in the smoke of battle. If Turner’s ‘R’ here indicates a red lion, this must be yet another ship, so far unidentified. However, it might also refer to the Redoutable (for which see chiefly folio 10, D05457; Turner Bequest LXXXIX 11). The Santissima Trinidad (for which see chiefly folio 21 verso, D05458; Turner Bequest LXXXIX 12) also had a white lion but with different legs from those seen here (or at least this is the case with the replica of the ship in Malaga harbour today).

David Blayney Brown
March 2006

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Bow and Stern of a Man-of-war 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-bow-and-stern-of-a-man-of-war-r1139278, accessed 19 April 2024.