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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Brighton and Copies from Wilson 1796-7 > Wilson Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Hull of a Three-Master, Canted on to its Side 1796-7

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Hull of a Three-Master, Canted on to its Side’ 1796-7
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 60 Recto:
The Hull of a Three-Master, Canted on to its Side 1796–7
D01246
Turner Bequest XXXVII 128a
Pencil and watercolour on blue laid wrapping paper prepared with a red-brown wash, 113 x 93 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘Invent. 361.’ bottom left
Stamped in black ‘XXXVII – 128a’ bottom right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
It has been assumed that Turner simply omitted to draw the masts of this ship, but they may in fact have been partially removed preparatory to stripping the vessel as a hulk, many of which were to be found off the north Kent coast, used for storage and as prison-hulks during the wars with France.
Technical notes:
There is some wear at the corners where the page was formerly glued to a mount, having been extracted from the sketchbook in the nineteenth century to exhibit the verso (D01245; Turner Bequest XXXVII 128). John Ruskin’s note of the book’s inventory number presumably dates from that occasion.

Andrew Wilton
September 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘The Hull of a Three-Master, Canted on to its Side 1796–7 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-hull-of-a-three-master-canted-on-to-its-side-r1149928, accessed 25 April 2024.