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 Head of an Officer, and a Flag 1805

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Head of an Officer, and a Flag’ 1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 28 Verso:
Head of an Officer, and a Flag 1805
D05473
Turner Bequest LXXXIX 21a
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 184 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Redoubtable. All main shrouds & sails colour dark | Trinidade. Top sails full ... Foguex | Bousin flying [outline sketch] flag’ across top, inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the sketchbook inverted. For a sketch possibly of the same man (?Lieutenant Lewis Roatley, or Roteley, of the Royal Marines), see folio 27 of the sketchbook (D05470; Turner Bequest LXXXIX 20). Turner’s notes describe the tone and set of sails of the various ships for his picture, The Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory, exhibited at Turner’s Gallery in 1806 (Tate N00480;1 see the Introduction to this sketchbook). In it the shrouds and sails of the French Redoutable (for which see folio 10, D05457; Turner Bequest LXXXIX 11), alongside the Victory, are indeed dark-coloured and the top sails of the Spanish flagship Santissima Trinidad (see also folio 21 verso, D05458; Turner Bequest LXXXIX 12) are full. The last words refer to flags of the French Fougueux and Bucentaure (see folio 9 verso, D05456) which are not included in the picture.

David Blayney Brown
March 2006

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).

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Head of an Officer, and a Flag 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-head-of-an-officer-and-a-flag-r1139283, accessed 19 April 2024.