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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Scotland 1834 > Edinburgh Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Sailing Boat off Blythe Sands 1834

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sailing Boat off Blythe Sands’ 1834
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 20 Recto:
Sailing Boat off Blythe Sands 1834
D26132
Turner Bequest CCLXVIII 20
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 181 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘nw’ top left and ‘Blyth Sands’ top
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘20’ bottom left descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCLXVIII – 20’ bottom left descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch depicts a vessel sailing past the Blythe Sands mudflats in the Thames estuary. Turner’s inscription ‘NW’ either suggests that this is a view to the north-west from Blythe Sands towards Canvey Island, or that the view is of Blythe Sands from the north-west. Two basket-shaped structures on poles to the right of the boat mark the end of groynes. There are further sketches of the mouth of the Thames on folio 2 verso (D26098), which were probably made on a steamboat journey from London to Margate.
Turner had exhibited a painting of fishing boats off Blythe Sands at his own gallery in 1809; Fishing upon the Blythe-Sand (Tate N00496).1 This sketch has a similar composition to that painting, but in reverse.
There is a small brown stain at the top left of the page.

Thomas Ardill
January 2011

1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.65 no.87.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Sailing Boat off Blythe Sands 1834 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2011, 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-sailing-boat-off-blythe-sands-r1136060, accessed 18 April 2024.