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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Brighton and Copies from Wilson 1796-7 > Wilson Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Mediterranean Coastal Scene with a Ship being Careened 1796-7

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Mediterranean Coastal Scene with a Ship being Careened’ 1796-7
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 51 Verso:
A Mediterranean Coastal Scene with a Ship being Careened 1796–7
D01221
Turner Bequest XXXVII 104
Pencil with grey wash, gouache, and pen and brown ink on blue laid wrapping paper prepared with a red-brown wash, 113 x 93 mm
Stamped in black ‘XXXVII – 104’ bottom left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The composition continues across folio 52 recto opposite (D01222; Turner Bequest XXXVII 105). As Finberg suggests,1 this is probably a memorandum of a composition by Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714–1789); the monochrome treatment indicates that it is likely to have been copied from an engraving. Vernet was probably the primary inspiration for the handling, if not the subject matter, of Fishermen at Sea, exhibited in 1796 (Tate T01585).2

Andrew Wilton
September 2012

1
Finberg 1909, I, p.82.
2
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.1–2 no.1, pl.1 (colour).

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Mediterranean Coastal Scene with a Ship being Careened 1796–7 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-mediterranean-coastal-scene-with-a-ship-being-careened-r1149911, accessed 26 April 2024.