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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Margate, London and Surrey c.1829-45 > Marine Dabblers Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Shipping on the River Thames, with St Paul's Cathedral in the Distance c.1829-30

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Shipping on the River Thames, with St Paul's Cathedral in the Distance’ c.1829-30
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 55 Verso:
Shipping on the River Thames, with St Paul’s Cathedral in the Distance c.1829–30
D22527
Turner Bequest CCXLI 55a
Pencil on gilt-edged pink wove paper, 89 x 113 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[... | ...]’ centre left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, this slight sketch shows shipping with London Bridge and St Paul’s Cathedral in the distance. The scrawled inscription on the left may relate to the boats.
There are similar studies on the recto and folio 56 recto opposite (D22526, D22528). Given the Margate drawings elsewhere in this book, Turner perhaps had a moment to make these studies when leaving or returning on one of the steamers used on the route to the resort down the Thames Estuary (see the Introduction).

Matthew Imms
May 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Shipping on the River Thames, with St Paul’s Cathedral in the Distance c.1829–30 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-shipping-on-the-river-thames-with-st-pauls-cathedral-in-the-r1148419, accessed 25 April 2024.