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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Isle of Wight 1827 > Cowes, the River Medina and Shipping > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Party in a Rowing Boat with Masts Beyond 1827

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Party in a Rowing Boat with Masts Beyond’ 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
A Party in a Rowing Boat with Masts Beyond 1827
D20872
Turner Bequest CCXXVIII 12
Pencil on blue wove paper, 148 x 192 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram below left of centre
Stamped in black ‘CCCCVIII 12’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is among dozens of blue paper studies presumably made in connection with the Cowes Regatta events in the late summer of 1827; see the Introduction to this subsection for other generic harbour and coastal scenes. The figures in the boat appear to include women in bonnets, probably visitors to Cowes for the racing; compare studies in the contemporary Cowes Regatta and Windsor and Cowes, Isle of Wight sketchbooks (Tate D18018, D18080, D20659; Turner Bequest CCVII 15a, 47a, CCXXVI 38a), and Tate D20874 (Turner Bequest CCXXVIII 14).
As noted in the Introduction, the present work and thirty-four other sheets were recorded in Finberg’s 1909 Inventory as unmounted, and ‘formed part of [a] parcel’ labelled by John Ruskin ‘O. 232. Chalk scrawls on grey. Rubbish.’1
1
Finberg 1909, II, p.702.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed in pencil ‘232 | O’ top left, upside down; inscribed in pencil ‘CCXXVIII. 12’ bottom right.

Matthew Imms
November 2015

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Party in a Rowing Boat with Masts Beyond 1827 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2015, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-party-in-a-rowing-boat-with-masts-beyond-r1183404, accessed 26 April 2024.