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 Studies of Boats and Figures: Passengers Disembarking from the Packet at Calais c.1802

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Studies of Boats and Figures: Passengers Disembarking from the Packet at Calais’ c.1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 40 Verso:
Studies of Boats and Figures: Passengers Disembarking from the Packet at Calais c.1802
D04980
Turner Bequest LXXXI 78
Black and white chalks on blue laid paper, 436 x 271 mm
Watermarks ‘1794’ and ‘VI’
Stamped in black ‘LXXXI–78’ bottom left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subject is continued on folio 41 recto opposite (D04981; Turner Bequest LXXXI 79). The main image seems to be connected with the sequence of events at Turner’s landing at Calais in his Channel crossing in July 1802, and with the large canvas Calais Pier, with French Poissards Preparing for Sea: An English Packet Arriving, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1803 (National Gallery, London).1 For related sketches in this sketchbook, see under folio 30 verso (D04960; Turner Bequest LXXXI 58).
The figures in a boat in the lower left corner are a separate drawing. Other sketches are inverted, including a slight study of a horse’s head.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

1
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.37–8 no.48, pl.58 (colour).

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Studies of Boats and Figures: Passengers Disembarking from the Packet at Calais 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-studies-of-boats-and-figures-passengers-disembarking-from-r1178184, accessed 19 April 2024.