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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Scotland 1801-10 > Scotch Lakes Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dumbarton: Beached Boats with the Rock in the Background 1801

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dumbarton: Beached Boats with the Rock in the Background’ 1801
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 184 Verso:
Dumbarton: Beached Boats with the Rock in the Background 1801
D03271
Turner Bequest LVI 182a
Pencil on white wove paper, 184 x 114 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, the subject is continued on folio 185 recto opposite (D03272; Turner Bequest LVI 183). It is out of sequence: Turner visited Dumbarton at the outset of his journey; see folios 25 verso–35 verso (D02961–D02980).
The outline of the mountain in the centre of the view does not seem very like Dumbarton Rock; there is a temptation to think that Turner misremembered the subject when he added his annotation. But see folios 185 verso–186 recto (D03273–D03274; Turner Bequest LVI 183a–184), for possible corroboration of the identification.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Dumbarton: Beached Boats with the Rock in the Background 1801 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-dumbarton-beached-boats-with-the-rock-in-the-background-r1179467, accessed 19 April 2024.