Joseph Mallord William Turner

Study for ‘The Shipwreck’

c.1799–1805

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Calais Pier Sketchbook
Medium: Chalk on paper
Dimensions: Support: 271 × 436 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D04903
Turner Bequest LXXXI 2

Catalogue entry

The painting The Shipwreck was exhibited in Turner’s own gallery in 1805 (Tate N00476),1 and he was sufficiently proud of it to have it engraved in mezzotint by Charles Turner two years later (Tate impression: P79356). With the page turned horizontally, here the principal motif of the picture, a single sail tossed obliquely against a dark sea, is already in place, although almost all the detail of the design remains to be worked out.

Other studies for the painting are on folios 3 verso, 41 verso–42 recto, 67 verso–68 recto, 69 verso–70 recto, and 71 verso–72 recto (D04907, D04982–D04983, D05034–D05035, D05038–D05039, D05042–D05043; Turner Bequest LXXXI 6, 80–81, 132–133, 136–7, 140–1). See also the Shipwreck (1) sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest LXXXVII).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

Butlin and Joll 1984, p.43 no.54, pl.64 (colour).

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