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 Boats in Choppy Seas; a Yacht; a Buoy 1827

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Boats in Choppy Seas; a Yacht; a Buoy’ 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 37 Recto:
Boats in Choppy Seas; a Yacht; a Buoy 1827
D18060
Turner Bequest CCVII 37
Pencil on white wove paper, 100 x 74 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?Dusky sky]’ towards top left, ‘yellow green’ left of centre, and ‘[?light]’ and [?ow... Point]’ centre right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘37’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCVII – 37’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned vertically, the upper half is taken up with two small seascapes, separated by a horizontal pencil line. Masts and sails are visible beyond the swelling waves, comparable with those in 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 buoy like the one seen at the bottom right here, as well as a distant moored warship, like the one apparently shown in the upper sketch here. The second sketch is annotated with colours and other comments.
At the bottom left is beside an isolated study of a yacht sailing in calmer circumstances. 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, ‘Boats in Choppy Seas; a Yacht; 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-boats-in-choppy-seas-a-yacht-a-buoy-r1183548, accessed 24 September 2024.