Joseph Mallord William Turner

Hulks, Probably on the Hamoaze or the Lower Tamar

1814

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In Tate Britain

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Devon Rivers, No.2 Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 110 × 178 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D09671
Turner Bequest CXXXIII 3

Catalogue entry

There is no indication of a specific setting other than the distant trees on the left, the focus being shipping in the foreground, comprising several hulks (decommissioned, dismasted warships). Interspersed with a few Yorkshire subjects (see the sketchbook’s Introduction), there are further such sketches interspersed with topographical views in the Hamoaze and lower reaches of the River Tamar north-west of Plymouth Sound as far as folio 29 recto (D09703). Andrew Wilton has suggested a connection between these studies and an atmospheric ‘colour beginning’ of a hulk in an estuary by moonlight (Tate D17169; Turner Bequest CXCVI E).1
1
See Wilton 1983, p.200.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
July 2014

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