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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Thames sketchbooks c.1804-14 > River and Margate Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Ships' Boats Victualling c.1805-9

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Ships' Boats Victualling’ c.1805-9
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 25 Recto:
Ships’ Boats Victualling circa 1805–9
D06394
Turner Bequest XCIX 22
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 115 x 190 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Bread Hay Straw’ bottom left, ‘Beef Vegetables live Sheep Fish’ bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘22’ top right
Stamped in black ‘XCIX 22’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is another scene of victualling, presumably drawn at the Navy yard at Deptford; see note to folio 21 of the sketchbook (D06378; Turner Bequest XCIX 18). Here, Turner notes the provisions going out to the ships.
Finberg’s description in Sketches and Drawings cannot be bettered: ‘Round the landing-stages in the foreground are the ships’ boats taking in stores of bread, hay and straw, sheep and fish. The day is fine, but there is evidently a wind blowing; the sea is choppy; there is plenty of spray about, and the pennants stand out taut from the masts of the big ships in the offing. It is all drawn with a few hurried, nervous pencil outlines, nothing is described in detail, yet the whole scene is brought as vividly before us as the most elaborate oil-painting could bring it.’

David Blayney Brown
March 2009

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Ships’ Boats Victualling c.1805–9 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2009, 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-ships-boats-victualling-r1130587, accessed 25 April 2024.