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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Thames, London and South of England 1821 ... > London Bridge and Portsmouth Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Sterns of City Barges; a Boat Flying Flags 1824

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sterns of City Barges; a Boat Flying Flags’ 1824
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 26 Recto:
Sterns of City Barges; a Boat Flying Flags 1824
D17962
Turner Bequest CCVI 26
Pencil on white wove paper, 100 x 160 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil with various notes (see main catalogue entry)
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘26’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCVI – 26’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
At the top right is a slight sketch of the profile of a boat or boats flying several large, square flags. The main study shows the sterns of two City of London livery company barges, side by side; their identities are a little uncertain, as the details and notes are not particularly clear. Above the one in the centre are the partial note of a motto, ‘To God only [...]’ with ‘3 [?Crown] | W I’ below; above the other stern appears to be ‘Grocers’, with ‘3 [?treble] Crowns’ towards the right. See also the study of the Fishmongers’ barge on folio 25 verso opposite (D17961).
The drawings between folios 20 verso and 34 verso (D40967, D17979) include rapid studies and notes of barges, flags, costumes and bridges along the River Thames, and appear to record or relate to the Lord Mayor’s Day procession of 9 November 1824, as discussed in the sketchbook’s Introduction.

Matthew Imms
December 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Sterns of City Barges; a Boat Flying Flags 1824 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-sterns-of-city-barges-a-boat-flying-flags-r1172680, accessed 19 April 2024.