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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
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Joseph Mallord William Turner Ships and Boats Sailing; a Bridge with Spires Beyond ?1831

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  • Inside back cover of sketchbook
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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Ships and Boats Sailing; a Bridge with Spires Beyond’ ?1831 (Inside back cover of sketchbook)
Inside back cover of sketchbook
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Inside Back Cover:
Ships and Boats Sailing; a Bridge with Spires Beyond ?1831
D41055
Pencil on white wove paper, 191 x 114 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned vertically, the main subjects are three studies of ships at sea or in an estuary, possibly made as Turner returned to London from Scotland in 1831 (see the sketchbook’s Introduction), near Newcastle upon Tyne (see under folio 8 recto; D22163) or on the River Thames, as there are also views from Richmond Hill, west of London (see under folio 89 verso; D22316; Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 88a). There are further shipping studies on folio 92 verso opposite (D22322; Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 91a), and a study of a sailing boat on folio 1 recto (D22151). There is a cramped townscape at the centre right, with spires above a bridge, as yet unidentified.

Matthew Imms
April 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Ships and Boats Sailing; a Bridge with Spires Beyond ?1831 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-ships-and-boats-sailing-a-bridge-with-spires-beyond-r1148971, accessed 25 April 2024.