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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Louis-Philippe at Portsmouth 1844 > Louis-Philippe at Portsmouth sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Semaphore Tower and Victoria Pier, Eighteen Gun Battery and Round Tower at Portsmouth; the Gosport Blockhouse 1844

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Semaphore Tower and Victoria Pier, Eighteen Gun Battery and Round Tower at Portsmouth; the Gosport Blockhouse’ 1844
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 5 Recto:
The Semaphore Tower and Victoria Pier, Eighteen Gun Battery and Round Tower at Portsmouth; the Gosport Blockhouse 1844
D35692
Turner Bequest CCCLXII 5
Pencil on white wove paper, 74 x 116 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘5’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCLXII – 5’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Like the other rapid sketches in this book, this relates to the arrival of Louis-Philippe, King of the French, at Portsmouth Harbour on 8 October 1844, as discussed in the Introductions to the sketchbook and the overall section. There are three waterfront views here. As Ian Warrell has noted,1 the buildings include Portsmouth’s former Square Tower semaphore station, shown inverted at the bottom right with flags flying on the Victoria Pier to its west. For other views of the tower, see under folio 2 verso (D35688); compare in particular folios 13 recto and 14 verso (D35708, D35709).
At the bottom, the Eighteen Gun Battery and Round Tower are seen to the north-west from the Saluting Platform. Compare Edward William Cooke’s 1836 painting of the Semaphore at Portsmouth (National Maritime Museum, London), while at the top the Gosport blockhouse is shown to the west across the harbour’s mouth, apparently with smoke on the horizon from a distant steamship. See also folios 13 recto and 20 recto (D35708, D35721).
1
See Warrell 2013, p.10; see also p.12.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
September 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Semaphore Tower and Victoria Pier, Eighteen Gun Battery and Round Tower at Portsmouth; the Gosport Blockhouse 1844 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, March 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-semaphore-tower-and-victoria-pier-eighteen-gun-battery-r1185641, accessed 27 April 2024.