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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Autumn Tour of Northern France 1845 > Dieppe and Kent Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Beached Boats, with Houses Beyond 1845

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Beached Boats, with Houses Beyond’ 1845
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 13 Verso:
Beached Boats, with Houses Beyond 1845
D35510
Turner Bequest CCCLXI 13
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 86 mm
Partial watermark ‘King | 1842’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Boats [?co...]’, White’, ‘H[...]’ and ‘S’ towards top right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Using the page turned vertically both ways, Turner has made two rapid, complementary studies of beached boats with small buildings beyond. The outer sketch is inscribed with colour and other notes, while the one at the gutter seems to show cliffs in the distance and the sea off to the right. The latter drawing is carried over very slightly onto the unaccessioned recto of folio 14 opposite. On which side of the Channel the subjects were recorded is unclear; see the sketchbook’s Introduction for the many slight coastal and shipping views scattered through it.
The blank recto is inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘13’ and stamped in black ‘CCCLXI – 13’ at the bottom right. For numerous instances of blank, unaccessioned rectos in this sketchbook, see the technical notes in the Introduction.
Technical notes:
There is some brown staining at the gutter, possibly indicating water damage in the 1928 Tate flood.

Matthew Imms
September 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Beached Boats, with Houses Beyond 1845 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-beached-boats-with-houses-beyond-r1183935, accessed 13 May 2024.