Joseph Mallord William Turner

Studies of Boats and Figures: Passengers Disembarking from the Packet at Calais

c.1802

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In Tate Britain

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Calais Pier Sketchbook
Medium
Chalk on paper
Dimensions
Support: 436 × 271 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D04980
Turner Bequest LXXXI 78

Catalogue entry

The subject is continued on folio 41 recto opposite (D04981; Turner Bequest LXXXI 79). The main image seems to be connected with the sequence of events at Turner’s landing at Calais in his Channel crossing in July 1802, and with the large canvas Calais Pier, with French Poissards Preparing for Sea: An English Packet Arriving, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1803 (National Gallery, London).1 For related sketches in this sketchbook, see under folio 30 verso (D04960; Turner Bequest LXXXI 58).
The figures in a boat in the lower left corner are a separate drawing. Other sketches are inverted, including a slight study of a horse’s head.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

1
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.37–8 no.48, pl.58 (colour).

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