Joseph Mallord William Turner

Ships under Sail

1827

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Cowes, the River Medina and Shipping
Medium
Gouache and graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 145 × 193 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D20893
Turner Bequest CCXXVIII 33

Catalogue entry

This is among dozens of blue paper studies presumably made in connection with the Cowes Regatta events in the late summer of 1827; see the Introduction to this subsection for other generic shipping, coastal and harbour scenes. Here various vessels are shown under way in close proximity.
As noted in the Introduction, the present work and thirty-four other sheets were recorded in Finberg’s 1909 Inventory as unmounted, and ‘formed part of [a] parcel’ labelled by John Ruskin ‘O. 232. Chalk scrawls on grey. Rubbish.’1
1
Finberg 1909, II, p.702.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed in pencil ‘232 | O’ top left, upside down; inscribed in pencil ‘CCXXVIII . 33’ top left, upside down.

Matthew Imms
November 2015

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