Joseph Mallord William Turner

A Fishing Vessel ?in a Storm; Trees on the Bank of a River or Lake

c.1799–1805

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Calais Pier Sketchbook
Medium: Chalk on paper
Dimensions: Support: 436 × 271 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D05032
Turner Bequest LXXXI 130

Catalogue entry

Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, the study of a fishing boat is continued on folio 67 recto opposite (D05033; Turner Bequest LXXXI 131). It is presumably connected with the painting Dutch Boats in a Gale: Fishermen Endeavouring to Put their Fish on Board (‘The Bridgewater Seapiece’), exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1801 (private collection, on loan to the National Gallery, London);1 see under folio 54 verso (D05008; Turner Bequest LXXXI 106).

The trees that appear rather unexpectedly on this page must relate to another project, presumably either the unexhibited painting Venus and Adonis (‘Adonis Departing for the Chase’) of about 1803–4 (private collection)2 or the unrealised ‘Death of Adonis’; see folios 26 verso and 27 verso (D04952, D04954; Turner Bequest LXXXI 50, 52).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.12–13 no.14, pl.11 (colour).

Ibid., pp.113–15 no.150, pl.49 (colour).

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