J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > History Painting c.1799-1807 > On a Lee Shore (2) Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Fishing Boat Riding a Breaker Close to the Shore, with Another Boat Beyond c.1801-2

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Fishing Boat Riding a Breaker Close to the Shore, with Another Boat Beyond’ c.1801-2
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 6 Recto:
A Fishing Boat Riding a Breaker Close to the Shore, with Another Boat Beyond c.1801–2
D03991
Turner Bequest LXVII 6
Pencil, ink and wash and scraping-out on white wove paper prepared with a grey-blue wash, 118 x 182 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘6’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LXVIII 6’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The drawing is continued on folio 5 verso opposite (D03990). Like the study on Tate D03978 (Turner Bequest LXVII 5) in the companion On a Lee Shore (1) sketchbook, this is connected with the oil painting Fishermen upon a Lee-Shore, in Squally Weather, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1802 (Southampton Art Gallery);1 a slighter sketch of the same boat is on folio 7 of the present book (D03992).
There are several drawings for the picture in the contemporary Calais Pier book; compare especially Tate D04986–D04987 (Turner Bequest LXXXI 84–85). See also the study of a fishing boat inside the back cover of the Chester sketchbook (Tate D05158; Turner Bequest LXXXII 77).
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.15–16 no.16, pl.12 (colour).
Verso:
Blank; inscribed by Ruskin in pen and red ink ‘1170’.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Fishing Boat Riding a Breaker Close to the Shore, with Another Boat Beyond c.1801–2 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-fishing-boat-riding-a-breaker-close-to-the-shore-with-r1178296, accessed 24 April 2024.