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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Isle of Wight 1827 > Cowes Regatta Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Men, a Woman in a Breeze and Children, Probably at Cowes 1827

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Men, a Woman in a Breeze and Children, Probably at Cowes’ 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 58 Recto:
Men, a Woman in a Breeze and Children, Probably at Cowes 1827
D18101
Turner Bequest CCVII 58
Pencil on white wove paper, 74 x 100 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘58’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCVII – 58’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, between a gentleman in a dark suit and hat and a man in rougher clothing, perhaps a sailor, stands a woman in a contrapposto pose. She is seemingly caught in a breeze as she holds onto her bonnet or scarf, and her thin dress billows out, emphasising her figure. Compare the women on folio 19 recto (D18024) and the wind-blown women in the painting Calais Pier, exhibited in 1803 (National Gallery, London);1 see also the sinuous back view of a woman on folio 10 recto (D18007).
To the right is a sympathetic study of small children in shallow hats and bonnets. One stands attentively in a coat down to his ankles with his hands behind his back, and they are perhaps spectators of the yacht racing occupying much of this sketchbook. Alternatively, they may be waiting for a boat of their own; compare the figures on folio 57 recto (D18099). For more on the studies relating to the regatta events at Cowes from late July 1827 onwards, see the sketchbook Introduction.

Matthew Imms
December 2014

1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.37–8 no.48, pl.58 (colour).

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Men, a Woman in a Breeze and Children, Probably at Cowes 1827 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-men-a-woman-in-a-breeze-and-children-probably-at-cowes-r1183589, accessed 02 August 2025.