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 ... > Thames Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Mast and Sails of a Thames Barge c.1825

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Mast and Sails of a Thames Barge’ c.1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 32 Recto:
The Mast and Sails of a Thames Barge c.1825
D18636
Turner Bequest CCXII 32
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 188 mm
Part watermark ‘lee | 819’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘32’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXII – 32’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is a careful study of the mast, furled sails and rigging of a Thames barge, of the sort long common in Turner’s studies on the river. A good example is an 1805 watercolour showing Kew Bridge, with the masts of two barges side by side in similar configurations, from the Thames, from Reading to Walton sketchbook (Tate D05946; Turner Bequest XCV 42).
The present pencil drawing falls within a sequence of recto watercolour studies, and perhaps predates them; alternatively, Turner may have made it in connection with the scene on folio 33 recto (D18637), where similar barges are shown; see also folios 49 verso and 75 verso (D18655, D18684).
Verso:
Blank, save for a little watercolour offsetting from folio 33 recto opposite (D18637).

Matthew Imms
December 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Mast and Sails of a Thames Barge c.1825 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-the-mast-and-sails-of-a-thames-barge-r1172754, accessed 25 April 2024.