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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Shipping, with Rowing Boats c.1799-1805

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 47 Verso:
Shipping, with Rowing Boats c.1799–1805
D04994
Turner Bequest LXXXI 92
Pencil, white chalk and ink on blue laid paper, 436 x 271 mm
Watermarks ‘1794’ and ‘VI’
Inscribed by Turner in ink ‘Do’ centre left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘LXXXI–92’ bottom left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subject is continued on folio 48 recto opposite (D04995; Turner Bequest LXXXI 93). This and the drawing on the preceding spread (folios 46 verso–47 recto; D04992–D04993; Turner Bequest LXXXI 90–91) seems to embody preliminary ideas for the painting Sheerness and the Isle of Sheppey, with the Junction of the Thames and the Medway from the Nore, exhibited at Turner’s gallery, 1807 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC).1 He apparently began with the notion of painting another ‘lee shore’ subject like that acquired by Samuel Dobree in 1802; see folios 43 verso–44 recto (D04986–D04987; Turner Bequest LXXXI 84–85).
Turner’s annotations suggest that all the drawings between folios 46 verso and 52 recto (D04992–D05003; Turner Bequest LXXXI 90–101) relate to this subject; however, the towering diagonal cloud lightly indicated in this study occurs in the drawing on folios 44 verso–45 recto (D04988–D04989; Turner Bequest LXXXI 86–87), and may relate to the sky in the painting A Coast Scene with Fishermen Hauling a Boat Ashore (‘The Iveagh Seapiece’) of about 1803–4 (English Heritage, Kenwood, London).2

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.49–50 no.62, pl.73.
2
Ibid., p.109 no.144, pl.149 (colour).

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Shipping, with Rowing Boats c.1799–1805 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-shipping-with-rowing-boats-r1178198, accessed 29 March 2024.