Joseph Mallord William Turner

This is among dozens of blue paper studies presumably made in connection with the Cowes Regatta events in the late summer of 1827; for several other closely observed studies of individual vessels, see the Introduction to this subsection. The low coastline and buildings in the background may be at Cowes or elsewhere along the Solent. There is a separate study of a hull at the top right.

As noted there, the present work and thirty-four other sheets were recorded in Finberg’s 1909 Inventory as unmounted, and ‘formed part of [a] parcel’ labelled by John Ruskin ‘O. 232. Chalk scrawls on grey. Rubbish.’1

Technical notes:

The sheet is somewhat stained down its right-hand edge.

Verso:

Blank; inscribed in red ink ‘418’ bottom left; inscribed in pencil ‘CCXXVIII . 43’ bottom right. Despite Finberg’s statement that this sheet was unmounted, the remnants of white mounting paper or tape are evident at the corners.