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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > George IV’s visit to Edinburgh 1822 > King's Visit to Edinburgh Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Royal Squadron at Anchor; and a View of Edinburgh from Leith 1822

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Royal Squadron at Anchor; and a View of Edinburgh from Leith’ 1822
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 64 Verso:
The Royal Squadron at Anchor; and a View of Edinburgh from Leith 1822
D17619
Turner Bequest CC 64a
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 187 mm
Blindstamped with the Turner Bequest stamp bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This study, made with the sketchbook inverted, belongs to a series of drawings of shipping at Leith with George IV’s royal squadron (see folio 64; D17618). These sketches show formations of boats, some at anchor with bunting tied to their shrouds and others under sail. None of the boats in the current sketch can be identified as particular vessels in the squadron and no particular event seems to be depicted, although this sketch was likely to have been made on the day that the King disembarked at Leith (15 August 1822).
At the bottom of the page, and continuing onto folio 65 (D17620) is an outline sketch of the view of Edinburgh from Leith with Edinburgh Castle (see King’s Visit to Edinburgh 1822 sketchbook Introduction for reference to other sketches of this view).

Thomas Ardill
August 2008

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘The Royal Squadron at Anchor; and a View of Edinburgh from Leith 1822 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 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-the-royal-squadron-at-anchor-and-a-view-of-edinburgh-from-r1132960, accessed 19 April 2024.