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 Hulks on the River Medway, Possibly at Chatham c.1821

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Hulks on the River Medway, Possibly at Chatham’ c.1821
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 77 Recto:
Hulks on the River Medway, Possibly at Chatham c.1821
D17483
Turner Bequest CXCIX 77
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 190 mm
Partial watermark ‘nard | 20’
Stamped in black ‘CXCIX – 77’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The drawings on this page describe hulks on the River Medway, as identified by Finberg.1 Presumably this location is suggested in light of the topographic focus of the present sketchbook, since the brief forms of harbour buildings in the background are largely ambiguous. The large number of substantial vessels suggests more specifically that Turner might have encountered the scene around the dockyard at Chatham. A tall spiked shape in the distance at left might be the masts of the dredger observed at close quarters in Turner’s drawing on the facing page, folio 76 verso (D17482).
A group of sweeping, curved lines towards the top of the sheet, at centre, describes ambiguous intentions. The gestural swathe might connote fire, or smoke, or some other matter capable of drifting in this way.
For a comprehensive list of the studies in this book which take Chatham as their subject, see the entry for folio 22 recto (D17402).

Maud Whatley
January 2016

1
Finberg 1909, I, p.609.

How to cite

Maud Whatley, ‘Hulks on the River Medway, Possibly at Chatham 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-hulks-on-the-river-medway-possibly-at-chatham-r1184761, accessed 23 April 2024.