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 > Calais Pier Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Fishing Boat Riding a Large Breaker c.1799-1802

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Fishing Boat Riding a Large Breaker’ c.1799-1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 43 Verso:
A Fishing Boat Riding a Large Breaker c.1799–1802
D04986
Turner Bequest LXXXI 84
Black and white chalks on blue laid paper, 436 x 271 mm
Watermarks ‘1794’ and Strasburg lily
Inscribed by Turner in ink ‘Mr Dobree’s Lee Shore’ towards top left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘LXXXI–84’ bottom left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The drawing continues on folio 44 recto opposite (D04987; Turner Bequest LXXXI 85). As Turner’s annotation tells us, this is a study for Fishermen upon a Lee–Shore, in Squally Weather (Southampton Art Gallery),1 which was acquired from the artist by Samuel Dobree, probably at or immediately after its showing at the Royal Academy exhibition of 1802. It gives the central episode very much as it appears in the finished painting, and with great dramatic force.
Other studies related to the picture are on folios 49 verso–50 recto and 51 verso–52 recto (D04998–D04999, D05002–D05003; Turner Bequest LXXXI 96–97, 100–101), and in the Chester sketchbook (Tate D05155–D05157; Turner Bequest LXXXII 75a, 76, 76a). See also drawings in the On a Lee Shore (1) and (2) sketchbooks (Tate D03978, D03990–D03991; Turner Bequest LXVII 5, LXVIII 5a–6).
1
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.15–16 no.16, pl.12 (colour).
Technical notes:
There is heavy offsetting from folio 44 recto opposite (D04987; Turner Bequest LXXXI 85).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Fishing Boat Riding a Large Breaker c.1799–1802 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-large-breaker-r1178190, accessed 25 April 2024.