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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Meuse-Mosel, Luxembourg and Northern ... > Rivers Meuse and Moselle Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Boats and Figures 1824

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Boats and Figures’ 1824
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 29 Recto:
Boats and Figures 1824
D19608
Turner Bequest CCXVI 29
Pencil on white wove paper, 78 x 118 mm
Watermark ‘smith & [allnut] | 18[22]’
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Two Barges men lay [...] their Ropes’ bottom left; ‘Red’ top right on figure’s dress
Inscribed in blue ink by Ruskin ‘29’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CCXVI–29’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The principal drawing depicts Mosan locals tending to their riverboats and laying ropes out. The vessels appear to be equipped with pulleys to draw in fishing nets. A similar boat is depicted above, its mast and rigging continued on the folio opposite (Tate D19607; Turner Bequest CCXVI 28a). With the sketchbook turned in accordance with the foliation, Turner has made a cursory sketch of a group of women, inscribing one of the figure’s dresses with ‘Red’.

Alice Rylance-Watson
February 2014

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Boats and Figures 1824 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 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-boats-and-figures-r1174396, accessed 19 April 2024.