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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Two Views of the Coast: Sheppey; and Queenborough, Sheerness and the River Medway c.1805-9

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 60 Verso:
Two Views of the Coast: Sheppey; and Queenborough, Sheerness and the River Medway circa 1805–9
D06454
Turner Bequest XCIX 56a
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 115 x 190 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Sheppey’ above top image, and ‘Queenboro’, ‘Sheerness’ and ‘Medway’ above lower image
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the sketchbook inverted, these views are continued on folio 61 (D06455; Turner Bequest XCIX 57). Above is the Isle of Sheppey with ships in the foreground, and below a panorama running from Queenborough to the Medway. A cross below marks the points of the compass.
The lower sketch perhaps provided the background for Guardship at the Great Nore, Sheerness, &c (private collection), exhibited at Turner’s Gallery in 1809.1

David Blayney Brown
March 2009

1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.67–8 no.91 (pl.101).

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Two Views of the Coast: Sheppey; and Queenborough, Sheerness and the River Medway 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-two-views-of-the-coast-sheppey-and-queenborough-sheerness-r1130650, accessed 28 March 2024.