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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > History Painting c.1799-1807 > Studies for Pictures Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Calm, with Various Vessels, One Firing a Gun c.1799-1802

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Calm, with Various Vessels, One Firing a Gun’ c.1799-1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 93 Recto:
A Calm, with Various Vessels, One Firing a Gun c.1799–1802
D04108
Turner Bequest LXIX 94
Ink, wash and white chalk on blue laid paper, 135 x 210 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘94’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘LXIX-94’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The group of drawings in this book depicting shipping in a flat calm, this one and folios 94 recto, 99 recto, 115 recto, 119 recto, 123 recto and 124 recto (D04109, D04115, D04133, D04137, D04141, D04142; Turner Bequest LXIX 95, 100, 116, 120, 124, 125) are especially satisfying. They seem to be building gradually towards the grand picture that Turner was to exhibit in 1807 under the title Sun Rising through Vapour; Fishermen Cleaning and Selling Fish (National Gallery, London).1 D04133 with its puzzling inscriptions seems to mark the point at which this sequence was transformed into that subject.
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.53–4 no.69, pl.79 (colour).
Verso:
Blank; inscribed in pencil ‘771’.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Calm, with Various Vessels, One Firing a Gun c.1799–1802 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-calm-with-various-vessels-one-firing-a-gun-r1177986, accessed 24 September 2024.