Joseph Mallord William Turner

Boats off the Coast of Kent; a Group of Figures

c.1830

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Kent Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 76 × 98 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D35785
Turner Bequest CCCLXIII 15

Catalogue entry

With the page turned vertically, at the outer edge is what appears to be a coastal scene with boats, with some shading and clouds in the sky and what seem to be notes describing hazy conditions off Kent. For identified subjects in the east of that county, see the sketchbook’s Introduction.
Below is a rapid study of a group of figures, apparently with headgear which may include bonnets and sou’westers, annotated with typically brief colour notes. The circumstances are unclear, but they may have been observed on a boat or quayside. There are other groups of figures on folio 14 verso opposite (D35784), and across folios 28 verso–29 recto (D35807–D35808; Turner Bequest CCCLXIII 27v–28); Finberg though the latter were passengers ‘on board a packet’.1

Matthew Imms
September 2016

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.1178.

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