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 > Calais Pier Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Pier at Calais, with a Rowing Boat and Packet Boat in Rough Water c.1802

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Pier at Calais, with a Rowing Boat and Packet Boat in Rough Water’ c.1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 39 Recto:
The Pier at Calais, with a Rowing Boat and Packet Boat in Rough Water c.1802
D04977
Turner Bequest LXXXI 75
Black and white chalks on blue laid paper, 436 x 271 mm
Watermarks ‘1794’ and ‘VI’
Stamped in black ‘LXXXI–75’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The drawing is continued on folio 38 verso opposite (D04976; Turner Bequest LXXXI 74). See under folio 30 verso (D04960; Turner Bequest LXXXI 58) for other studies related to the subject in this sketchbook. Here for the first time in the sequence we see what is probably the packet boat itself, which transported Turner and his fellow passengers across the Channel to Calais, though few figures are in evidence in this drawing. Compare that on folios 39 verso–40 recto (D04978–D04979; Turner Bequest LXXXI 76–77).
Technical notes:
The page is discoloured from prolonged exposure.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘The Pier at Calais, with a Rowing Boat and Packet Boat in Rough Water c.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-the-pier-at-calais-with-a-rowing-boat-and-packet-boat-in-r1178181, accessed 19 April 2024.