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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Group of Fishermen and Fish Wives ?at Calais 1824

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 192 Recto:
Group of Fishermen and Fish Wives ?at Calais 1824
D20083
Turner Bequest CCXVI 272
Pencil on white wove paper, 78 x 118 mmm
Stamped in black ‘CCXVI–272’ top left (inverted in relation to foliation)
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Red’ centre towards top left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Sketching from a point on the shore or harbour, here Turner records a group of fishermen and fishwives going about their daily activities. A similar sketch, drawn in the same sitting, is shown on Tate D19922; Turner Bequest CCXVI 186. The women are seated, possibly preparing the morning’s catch for sale, while the men stand together before some boats moored at right. There are no visible topographical features to determine where exactly Turner sketches. It seems likely that the artist is in northern France, perhaps at Calais, given the similarities between this sketch and others taken at and around Calais harbour and the beach (see Tate D04196, D04197, D20077, D28477–D28478, D24907, D24949; Turner Bequest LXXI 4, 5, CCXVI 268a, CCLX 41–42, CCLX 71, 113). Turner arrived there on 9 September 1824 and returned five days later on the 14th, the eve of his departure back to England.
With the sketchbook turned in accordance with the foliation, Turner has also jotted two figures carrying the same large objects, perhaps fishing equipment, on their backs.
This leaf was originally separated from the Rivers Meuse and Moselle sketchbook until Finberg identified it as belonging to the 1824 tour.1 It was then rebound into the book as a verso; the recto is blank apart from Finberg’s Turner Bequest stamp.
1
Finberg 1909, vol.II, p.681.
Verso:
Inscribed in pencil ‘272a’ bottom right.

Alice Rylance-Watson
June 2014

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Group of Fishermen and Fish Wives ?at Calais 1824 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-group-of-fishermen-and-fish-wives-at-calais-r1174717, accessed 19 September 2024.