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

The subject is continued on folio 49 recto opposite (D04997; Turner Bequest LXXXI 95). Other versions of the design are on folios 33 verso–45 recto, 47 verso–48 recto and 50 verso–51 recto (D04988–D04989, D04994–D04995, D05000–D05001; Turner Bequest LXXXI 86–87, 92–93, 98–99).

Here Turner shows his recurrent interest in subjects in which individual elements are superimposed in an apparently impenetrable visual tangle: Ships Bearing up for Anchorage (‘The Egremont Seapiece’), exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1802 (Tate T03868, displayed at Petworth House, West Sussex),1 is an example; see folios 33 verso–34 recto, 34 verso–35 recto and 37 verso–38 recto (D04966–D04969, D04974–D04975; Turner Bequest LXXXI 64–65, 66–67, 72–73). A canvas of 1804, Boats Carrying out Anchors and Cables to Dutch Men of War, in 1665 (Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC),2 uses the device seen here, of a small boat directly in front of a larger one; in this case, the latter is in sharp foreshortening, viewed from the stern.

The motif of a small boat breasting a steep breaker close to the shore is the principal subject of Fishermen upon a Lee–Shore, in Squally Weather, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1802 (Southampton Art Gallery),3 studied on folios 43 verso–44 recto, 49 verso–50 recto and 51 verso–52 recto (D04986–D04987, D04998–D04999, D05002–D05003; Turner Bequest LXXXI 84–85, 96–97, 100–101).