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 Figures and Small Boats 1805-9

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Figures and Small Boats’ 1805-9
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 28 Recto:
Figures and Small Boats 1805–9
D40600
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 115 x 190 mm
Inscribed by an unknown hand in red ink ‘863 Egg yoke’ bottom left, and in another hand in pencil ‘127’ lower right of centre
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch is very faded and rubbed but must originally have been one of the more complete and lively in the sketchbook. It may be related to the victualling subjects elsewhere in the book (see especially note to folio 21 (D06378; Turner Bequest XCIX 18) or depict boats coming in to shore with fish. Described by Finberg as the verso of ‘page 90’, it was later inserted as folio 28 recto. The inscription in red ink refers to that by Turner on the other side comparing the sun to egg yolk (D06517; Turner Bequest XCIX 90).

David Blayney Brown
March 2009

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Figures and Small Boats 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-figures-and-small-boats-r1130592, accessed 20 September 2024.