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 Vessels Firing their Guns c.1821

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Vessels Firing their Guns’ c.1821
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 76 Recto:
Vessels Firing their Guns c.1821
D17481
Turner Bequest CXCIX 76
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 190 mm
Partial watermark ‘nard | 20’
Stamped in black ‘CXCIX – 76’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page inverted according to the sketchbook’s foliation, here Turner makes several studies of vessels firing their guns, as identified by Finberg.1 The artist delicately renders two warships across the top edge and a lighter craft at right of centre. All are largely obscured by great clouds of smoke, evoked using bouncing lines which form billowing clouds. Another similar rendering is made on the facing page, folio 75 verso (D17480).

Maud Whatley
January 2016

1
Finberg 1909, I, p.609.

How to cite

Maud Whatley, ‘Vessels Firing their Guns 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-vessels-firing-their-guns-r1184759, accessed 25 July 2025.