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 Study for 'Ships Bearing up for Anchorage ("The Egremont Seapiece")' c.1799-1802

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Study for 'Ships Bearing up for Anchorage ("The Egremont Seapiece")'’ c.1799-1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 45 Verso:
Study for ‘Ships Bearing up for Anchorage (“The Egremont Seapiece”)’ c.1799–1802
D04990
Turner Bequest LXXXI 88
Black and white chalks on blue laid paper, 436 x 271 mm
Watermarks ‘1794’ and Strasburg lily
Inscribed by Turner in ink ‘Ld Egremonts Picture’ top left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘LXXXI–88’ bottom left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subject is continued on folio 46 recto opposite (D04991; Turner Bequest LXXXI 89); offsetting has made it difficult to read the composition. This is the stormiest of the preparatory studies for Ships Bearing up for Anchorage (‘The Egremont Seapiece’) of 1802 (Tate T03868, displayed at Petworth House, West Sussex)1 that occur in this sketchbook; the others are on folios 33 verso–34 recto, 34 verso–35 recto and 37 verso–38 recto (D04966–D04967, D04968–D04969, D04974–D04975; Turner Bequest LXXXI 64–65, 66–67, 72–73).
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll suggest that the ‘Egremont Seapiece’ depicts ‘a stormy sky and turbulent sea’,2 whereas in fact, despite the motion in the foreground waves, it is a work of tranquillity and serene balance. The lowering sky of this study is not reproduced in the finished work.
1
Butlin and Joll 1984, p.17 no.18, pl.14 (colour).
2
Ibid.
Technical notes:
There is heavy offsetting from folio 46 recto opposite (D04991; Turner Bequest LXXXI 89).

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Study for ‘Ships Bearing up for Anchorage (“The Egremont Seapiece”)’ 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-study-for-ships-bearing-up-for-anchorage-the-egremont-r1178194, accessed 25 April 2024.