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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Folkestone and the Medway c.1821-2 > Medway Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Harbour Scene at Sheerness c.1821

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Harbour Scene at Sheerness’ c.1821
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 12 Verso:
A Harbour Scene at Sheerness c.1821
D17385
Turner Bequest CXCIX 12a
Pencil on white wove paper, 190 x 112 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?D...]’, ‘[?m m]’, ‘W’, and ‘[?V...low ...door]’ towards top
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Made with the sketchbook turned vertically, the drawing on this page describes a view of Sheerness presumably made from a vessel close to the shore. Many of the landmarks are inscribed with labels. This architectural arrangement is also evident in the distance, to the right of centre, in William Daniell’s 1823 watercolour Sheerness (British Museum, London) engraved for A Voyage Round Great Britain (Tate impression: T02943). The previous two pages, on folios 11 verso and 12 recto (D17383 and D17384) also illustrate views of Sheerness, a theme which Turner does not appear to pursue again until the end of the sketchbook, on folios 86 verso and 90 verso (D17499 and D17507).
For other studies of Sheerness in Turner’s oeuvre, see the Hesperides sketchbook of about 1805–06 (Tate D05791, D05838; Turner Bequest XCIII 16, 41); and the River and Margate sketchbook of about 1805–9 (Tate D06415, D06416, D06416, D06454–D06455, D06459, D06470; Turner Bequest XCIX 33a, 34, 56a–57, 59, 64a). Also see the watercolour Sheerness of about 1825 (Tate D18153; Turner Bequest CCVIII T),1 and associated loose colour study of about 1824 (Tate D25389; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 266). Two oils were also exhibited at Turner’s own gallery in 1808 and 1809. These were Sheerness as Seen from the Nore (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston)2 and Guardship at the Great Nore, Sheerness, &c. (private collection).3

Maud Whatley
January 2016

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.387 no.755, reproduced.
2
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.58 no.76, pl.86 (colour).
3
Ibid., pp.67–8 no.91, pl.101 (colour).

How to cite

Maud Whatley, ‘A Harbour Scene at Sheerness c.1821 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-harbour-scene-at-sheerness-r1184662, accessed 26 April 2024.