Joseph Mallord William Turner

A Group of Ships Riding at Anchor, Seen from the Shore

c.1801–2

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: On a Lee Shore (1) Sketchbook
Medium: Ink and graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 118 × 182 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D03974
Turner Bequest LXVII 1

Catalogue entry

This fluent sketch can be seen as belonging to the series of rapidly-observed marine subjects that features in the contemporary Studies for Pictures sketchbook (Tate D04104–D04116; Turner Bequest LXIX 90–101). It bears some relation to the subject matter of the painting Ships Bearing up for Anchorage (‘The Egremont Seapiece’; Tate T03868, displayed at Petworth House, West Sussex),1 exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1802.

Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.17 no.18, pl.14 (colour).

Technical notes:

For further discussion of Turner’s label and the issue of this sketchbook’s covers, see the technical notes in the Introduction.

Verso:

Blank; inscribed by the Executors of the Turner Bequest, Henry Scott Trimmer, Charles Turner, Charles Lock Eastlake and John Prescott Knight in ink ‘N^o 171 | H S Trimmer C Turner’ and in pencil ‘C.L.E.’ and ‘JPK’ top left.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

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