Joseph Mallord William Turner

A Ship of the Line in Profile

c.1821

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In Tate Britain

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Medway Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 112 × 190 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D17433
Turner Bequest CXCIX 41

Catalogue entry

Made with the page inverted according to the foliation of the sketchbook, these two drawings lightly connect at centre to show a ship of the line in profile.1 The composition continues onto the facing sheet, folio 40 verso (D17432), where Turner describes the bow of the vessel. He observes the ship docked at port. This is indicated most obviously by a stack of short horizontal dashes which connect the harbour with the deck and supply a route for crew between the two. Small sections of taut rigging are indicated towards both stern and bow, and gun ports elaborate the hull at intervals.
1
Finberg 1909, I, p.608.
Technical notes:
A small, brown, circular stain marks this page slightly above its centre.

Maud Whatley
January 2016

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