Joseph Mallord William Turner

Sailing Vessels on the River Seine near Rouen

?1829

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Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Tancarville and Lillebonne Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 107 × 156 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D23851
Turner Bequest CCLIII 77 a

Catalogue entry

The page contains a sketch, drawn horizontally, of two sailing boats on the river. Finberg noted this page simply as ‘Sailing vessels’,1 But the location has been further specified as Rouen,2 on the River Seine. In a few strokes, indicating that the sketch was made rapidly, Turner captures the shapes of the vessel at right and conveys the second vessel at left, with an energy which adds to the sense of the boats moving on the water.

Art historian Ian Warrell states 3 that Turner referred to this and folio 75 verso (D23847) to supplement folio 74 recto (D23844) as the preliminary sketch for his later watercolour, Shipping at Canteleu, Normandy, c.1832 (Tate D24643; Turner Bequest CCLIX 78).

Finberg 1909, II, p.771.

?Ian Warrell, ‘Turner on the Seine: Topographical Index’, c.1999, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain (printout in copy of Warrell 1999), p.5.

Warrell 1999, pp.164, 271 no.99.

Technical notes:

There is a faint brownish spot stain at upper left of centre of the page.

Caroline South
May 2017

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