Joseph Mallord William Turner

Women and Children Paddling on a Beach

c.1826–40

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Medium
Gouache and watercolour on paper
Dimensions
Support: 137 × 190 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D24797
Turner Bequest CCLIX 232

Catalogue entry

With their dresses drawn up to their knees, these children and older girls or women appear to be paddling on a beach (see the Introduction for other examples of such recreational scenes). One seems to be wearing a bonnet with a long feather like that in Tate D24798 (Turner Bequest CCLIX 233).
As discussed in the Introduction, this is one of the subjects of figures by the sea which Ian Warrell tentatively suggested as linked to Brighton around 1827, while noting that they could equally well show scenes in England or France on other occasions.1
1
See Warrell 1989, pp.120, 123 note 114.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed in pencil ‘232’ top left; inscribed in pencil ‘D.24797’ bottom left. There is a border of white paper or tape, indicating that the sheet was formerly mounted.

Matthew Imms
December 2015

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