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 Regatta Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Ships and a Boat under Sail; a Boat off a Coastline; a Buoy 1827

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Ships and a Boat under Sail; a Boat off a Coastline; a Buoy’ 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 20 Recto:
Ships and a Boat under Sail; a Boat off a Coastline; a Buoy 1827
D18026
Turner Bequest CCVII 20
Pencil on white wove paper, 74 x 100 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘20’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCVII – 20’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
There are two registers of studies here: above are two studies of what appears to be the same substantial three-masted ship as it approaches, with a yacht to its right; below is the slight indication of a low coastline, with another yacht in the distance. In addition, there is a prominent sketch of a buoy at the bottom centre.
The yacht at the top right is similar to one on the far right of the painting East Cowes Castle, the Seat of J. Nash, Esq.; the Regatta Beating to Windward, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1828 (Indianapolis Museum of Art),1 which also includes a prominent buoy in the foreground. For more on studies in this sketchbook relating to the regatta events at Cowes from late July 1827 onwards, see the sketchbook Introduction.

Matthew Imms
December 2014

1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.150 no.242, pl.246 (colour).

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Ships and a Boat under Sail; a Boat off a Coastline; a Buoy 1827 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2014, 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-ships-and-a-boat-under-sail-a-boat-off-a-coastline-a-buoy-r1183514, accessed 19 April 2024.