Joseph Mallord William Turner

Beach

after 1825

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Medium: Watercolour on paper
Dimensions: Support: 188 × 271 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D25347
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 225

Catalogue entry

This is one of a large number of sketches on loose sheets of paper depicting coastal terrain and seagoing vessels in various combinations. For the grouping and dating of these works to the middle and later periods of Turner’s career, see the section introduction. This sheet was cut from a much larger sheet, some of the other sections of which Turner specialist Eric Shanes has located in the Turner Bequest.1 These are: Tate D25346, D25348, D25395 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 224, 226, 272). Each of these sections bears a different fragment of the watermark reading ‘T EDMONDS’, ‘1825’, and ‘NOT BLEACHED’. To these four sheets, paper expert Peter Bower added Tate D25396–D25398 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 273–275).2

Eric Shanes, Turner’s Watercolour Explorations 1810–1842, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, p.40.

Peter Bower, Turner’s Later Papers: A Study of the Manufacture, Selection and Use of his Drawing Papers 1820–1851, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1999, p.85

Verso:

Speckled with small spots of watercolour across the sheet.

John Chu
June 2015

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