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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Shipping with a Dome in the Distance, Perhaps in the Pool of London or at Greenwich; ?a Mast and Sail c.1830

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 18 Verso:
Shipping with a Dome in the Distance, Perhaps in the Pool of London or at Greenwich; ?a Mast and Sail c.1830
D35790
Turner Bequest CCCLXIII 17a
Pencil on white wove paper, 98 x 76 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned vertically, the lower half is taken up with a swift study of shipping off distant buildings. The dome is possibly that of St Paul’s Cathedral, viewed from the River Thames at the Pool of London; there are many clearer examples in the sketchbooks in the ‘Thames, London and South of England 1821–7’ section of this catalogue and elsewhere, likely made at the beginning or end of journeys by steamer down the Kent Estuary to Margate (see under folio 10 verso; D35776).
There may be a hint of a second dome to the right, raising the possibility of Greenwich Hospital (later the Royal Naval College); see folios 43 verso and 44 recto (D35834–D35835; Turner Bequest CCCLXIII 42a, 43).
The separate sketch at the top may show a mast and sail, drawn with the page horizontal.

Matthew Imms
September 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Shipping with a Dome in the Distance, Perhaps in the Pool of London or at Greenwich; ?a Mast and Sail c.1830 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-shipping-with-a-dome-in-the-distance-perhaps-in-the-pool-of-r1183754, accessed 29 March 2024.