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, Meuse and Cologne Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Studies of Boats under Sail and Rowing Boats, with Details of the Bows of a Boat, a Rudder and Rope Fenders 1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Studies of Boats under Sail and Rowing Boats, with Details of the Bows of a Boat, a Rudder and Rope Fenders’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 90 Verso:
Studies of Boats under Sail and Rowing Boats, with Details of the Bows of a Boat, a Rudder and Rope Fenders 1825
D19551
Turner Bequest CCXV 90a
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Partial watermark ‘lee | 19’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?Gd] white [?length] of V’ top left, and ‘WBR Hat | Gold Button | White neck cloth | 3 Red Boss | 3 Gold’ below centre
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The page comprises studies of a wide variety of sailing and rowing boats, with both complete craft and various details. At the bottom centre one includes a figure beside an array of decorated features, apparently within one end of a sailing vessel; both elements are also described with colour notes. There is no wider context, whether English or Continental (see the sketchbook’s Introduction); see also boat studies on folios 89 verso and the recto (D19549–D19550).
Technical notes:
The bottom edges of this leaf and folio 89 (D19548–D19549) fall a millimetre or two short of the rest and are slightly irregular, being sections of the outer edge of the original sheet; see also folios 83 and 84 (D19541–D19552), at the beginning of this gathering. The effect is least pronounced in the present case, affecting only about 60 mm towards the gutter.

Matthew Imms
September 2020

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Studies of Boats under Sail and Rowing Boats, with Details of the Bows of a Boat, a Rudder and Rope Fenders 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-studies-of-boats-under-sail-and-rowing-boats-with-details-of-r1202888, accessed 06 May 2025.