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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Scotland 1818-20 > Scotch Antiquities Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Vessels in the Firth of Forth 1818

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Vessels in the Firth of Forth’ 1818
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 89 Verso:
Vessels in the Firth of Forth 1818
D13735
Turner Bequest CLXVII 81a
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 186 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn over two pages with the sketchbook inverted and continued on folio 90 (D13736; CLXVII 81a), this is the only shipping subject in the Scotch Antiquities sketchbook, although there are a number of similar sketches in the Bass Rock and Edinburgh and Edinburgh, 1818 sketchbooks showing shipping around Dunbar, Port Edgar, Queensferry, Leith and other parts of the Firth of Forth (see Scotland 1818 Tour Introduction). The present sketch also shows the Firth of Forth, probably from the southern shore looking north-west up the river towards Fife. As well as several small sailing vessels, which lean into the wind on folio 90, there is a larger two- or three-masted vessel with several sails and complex rigging on the present page.

Thomas Ardill
April 2008

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Vessels in the Firth of Forth 1818 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2008, 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-vessels-in-the-firth-of-forth-r1132292, accessed 20 April 2024.