Catalogue entry
The subject is continued on folio 42 recto opposite (
D04983; Turner Bequest LXXXI 81). This confused drawing is associated in Turner’s annotation with his painting
The Shipwreck, exhibited at his own gallery in 1805 (Tate
N00476),
1 the year in which the inscriptions in this book were probably made. It is therefore likely that he was accurate in remembering the connection between the two, though it is difficult to discern much resemblance.
This study does, however, illustrate the way in which many of the ideas tried out here merged into one another, just as the watercolour of about 1805,
Lake of Geneva, with Mont Blanc from the Lake (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven;
2 see under folio 8 verso;
D04917; Turner Bequest LXXXI 16), mutates into the 1807 painting
Sun Rising through Vapour; Fishermen Cleaning and Selling Fish (National Gallery, London;
3 see under folio 12 verso;
D04925; Turner Bequest LXXXI 24).
That being said, the large boat to the right with its sail tilted diagonally, and the small boat beside it, are motifs that do appear in the finished
Shipwreck. A more recognisable study for the picture is on folio 1 verso (
D04903; Turner Bequest LXXXI 2), under which other studies in this book are noted.
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