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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Isle of Wight 1827 > Windsor and Cowes, Isle of Wight ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Views of Cowes; a Yacht under Sail 1827

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Views of Cowes; a Yacht under Sail’ 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 70 Verso:
Views of Cowes; a Yacht under Sail 1827
D20704
Turner Bequest CCXXVI 67a
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 192 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?G G]’ towards bottom right, descending vertically
Partial watermark ‘R Bar | 18’
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Two of the drawings are inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, with another at the outer edge made with the page turned vertically. The upper horizontal one shows the view south-east up the River Medina from the vicinity of Cowes Castle; compare the distant building and bunting in the background of the painting East Cowes Castle, the Seat of J. Nash, Esq.; the Regatta Starting for their Moorings, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1828 (Victoria and Albert Museum, London).1 There appears to be smoke issuing from a steamer.
The looser drawing at the bottom left is a continuation of a variant view which continues across the whole of folio 71 recto opposite (D20705; Turner Bequest CCXXVI 68), with Cowes Castle (see under folio 72 verso; D20708; Turner Bequest CCXXVI 69a) apparently indicated here The vertically orientated subject, notionally separated from the second of the horizontal views by a pencil line bisecting the page, shows a yacht under sail off a distant headland.
For more on studies in this sketchbook relating to the regatta events at Cowes from late July 1827 onwards, see the Introduction.

Matthew Imms
November 2015

1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.150–1 no.243, pl.247 (colour).

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Views of Cowes; a Yacht under Sail 1827 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2015, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-views-of-cowes-a-yacht-under-sail-r1183346, accessed 26 April 2024.