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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Folkestone and the Medway c.1821-2 > Medway Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Boats, Probably on the River Medway c.1821

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Boats, Probably on the River Medway’ c.1821
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 88 Verso:
Boats, Probably on the River Medway c.1821
D17503
Turner Bequest CXCIX 88a
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 190 mm
Partial watermark ‘nard | 20’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?B]’ towards right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As identified by Finberg, the drawings on this page describe small sailing vessels.1 At centre, a cluster of boats is swiftly rendered, a standing figure emerging from one of them and presumably a collection of buildings visible behind.
Above this centralised sketch, a single boat is swiftly considered in isolation. It too is populated at its stern by a figure.
In the context of the subjects considered by Turner throughout the present sketchbook, it is likely that these vessels were observed on the River Medway in Kent.

Maud Whatley
January 2016

1
Finberg 1909, I, p.609.

How to cite

Maud Whatley, ‘Boats, Probably on the River Medway c.1821 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-boats-probably-on-the-river-medway-r1184781, accessed 05 April 2026.