Joseph Mallord William Turner

Barges and Boats on the Thames

1805

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Hesperides (2) Sketchbook
Medium: Pen and ink on paper
Dimensions: Support: 143 × 228 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D05862
Turner Bequest XCIV 11

Catalogue entry

Finberg further described this slight sketch as a ‘Study for one of the Petworth pictures’ and his identification of the subject as Windsor Castle suggests that he had in mind Near the Thames Lock, Windsor Castle exhibited in Turner’s Gallery, 1809 (Tate T03877; displayed at Petworth House).1 However there seems no such connection and the sketch probably belongs with others, in a similar cursory style, depicting the Thames at Richmond on the verso and folio 12 (05863, D05864). Hill suggests the sketch might continue as if to left or right on folio 10 verso (D05861).

David Blayney Brown
December 2007

Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.65–6 no.88 (pl.98).

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