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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Margate, London and Surrey c.1829-45 > Kent Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Sailing Boats ?off a Church Tower, Probably in Kent c.1830

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sailing Boats ?off a Church Tower, Probably in Kent’ c.1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 26 Recto:
Sailing Boats ?off a Church Tower, Probably in Kent c.1830
D35802
Turner Bequest CCCLXIII 25
Pencil on white wove paper, 76 x 98 mm
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘25’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCLXIII – 25’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
In the main sketch here, a sailing boat or boats appear to pass a tower, barely indicated in outline towards the right; it is likely to be the same structure shown in barely more detail on folio 25 verso opposite (D35801; Turner Bequest CCCLXIII 24a), and may be a church in Kent, the setting for many identified drawings in this sketchbook, as noted in the Introduction.
In a swift separate drawing below, sailing boats are shown manoeuvring.

Matthew Imms
September 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Sailing Boats ?off a Church Tower, Probably in Kent c.1830 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-sailing-boats-off-a-church-tower-probably-in-kent-r1183765, accessed 04 April 2026.