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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and French ... > Holland Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Sailing Barge Moored beside a Quay with Others Beyond; a Wheelbarrow and Straw 1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Sailing Barge Moored beside a Quay with Others Beyond; a Wheelbarrow and Straw’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 126 Recto:
A Sailing Barge Moored beside a Quay with Others Beyond; a Wheelbarrow and Straw 1825
D19088
Turner Bequest CCXIV 126
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 155 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Straw’ towards bottom left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘26’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXIV – 126’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, a busy harbour view is shown full of sailing boats. The Dutch Turner scholar Fred Bachrach has classified the craft in the foreground as a poon, with ‘her jib hoisted, [and] main-sail furled’.1 ‘Straw’ is noted on the quay, along with a heavy wheelbarrow; compare the one being pulled and pushed on folio 124 verso (D19085).
There is no indication of the wider setting, but as noted under folio 123 verso (D19083), it was possibly the IJ riverfront at Amsterdam. See this sketchbook’s Introduction for discussion of its many shipping studies.
1
See Bachrach 1974, p.72.
Technical notes:
There is irregular brown staining towards the outer edge, likely caused by the 1928 Tate Gallery flood.

Matthew Imms and Quirine van der Meer Mohr
September 2020

How to cite

Matthew Imms and Quirine van der Meer Mohr, ‘A Sailing Barge Moored beside a Quay with Others Beyond; a Wheelbarrow and Straw 1825 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2020, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-sailing-barge-moored-beside-a-quay-with-others-beyond-a-r1202440, accessed 25 June 2025.