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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Vignette watercolours c.1826-1843 > Watercolours Related to The Poetical ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Vignette Study of Boat in Waves; ?Study for 'Lord Ullin's Daughter' for Campbell's 'Poetical Works' c.1835-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Vignette Study of Boat in Waves; ?Study for 'Lord Ullin's Daughter' for Campbell's 'Poetical Works'’ c.1835-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Vignette Study of Boat in Waves; ?Study for ‘Lord Ullin’s Daughter’ for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’ circa 1835–6
D27588
Turner Bequest CCLXXX 71
Pencil and watercolour, approximately 120 x 190 mm on off-white machine-made cartridge paper, 170 x 237 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink with ruled lines along top and bottom of sheet.
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘71’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXX 71’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Although A.J. Finberg titled this spare watercolour sketch ‘Clouds’,1 the scene depicted is actually a seascape, as indicated by the form of the ship faintly drawn in pencil on the right-hand side of the composition. Although the design is too vague to be firmly linked with any of the finished illustrations, the study has been tentatively identified by Jan Piggott as related to Turner’s series of designs for Thomas Campbell’s Poetical Works.2 The general subject matter, as well as the location and position of the ship, closely resemble another watercolour sketch in the Turner Bequest (see Tate D27580; Turner Bequest CCLXXX 63). Both examples may represent experimental studies for Lord Ullin’s Daughter circa 1835 (National Gallery of Scotland),3 Turner’s vignette illustration engraved by Robert Wallis to accompany Campbell’s poem of the same title.4 There are a number of other studies in the Turner Bequest that may relate to Lord Ullin’s Daughter (Tate D27557, D27558, D27580, D27581, D27638; Turner Bequest CCLXXX 40, 41, 63, 64, 121).
1
Finberg 1909, vol.II, p.894.
2
Piggott 1993, p.96.
3
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, no.1280; reproduced in colour in Mungo Campbell, A Complete Catalogue of Works by Turner in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh 1993, p.59.
4
W.G. Rawlinson, The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., vol.II, London 1913, no.622. There is one impression in Tate’s collection (T04774).
Technical notes:
Peter Bower has noted that this study is made on off-white low-grade machine-made cartridge paper. The maker is unknown and there is no watermark. This paper would have been relatively cheap to buy and was inferior to standard drawing papers. Turner has used the ‘felt’ side of the sheet which has slightly more texture than the ‘wire’ side, allowing better adhesion of pigment and graphite to the surface of the sheet. Many of Turner’s vignette studies were made on a similar grade of machine-made paper, and the artist employed the ‘felt’ side on all of them.1
1
Bower 1999, p.59.
Verso:
Inscribed by an unknown hand in pencil ‘CCLXX 71’ top left, inverted

Meredith Gamer
August 2006

How to cite

Meredith Gamer, ‘Vignette Study of Boat in Waves; ?Study for ‘Lord Ullin’s Daughter’ for Campbell’s ‘Poetical Works’ c.1835–6 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2006, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-vignette-study-of-boat-in-waves-study-for-lord-ullins-r1133413, accessed 24 April 2024.