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 > Cowes, the River Medina and Shipping > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Cowes and the River Medina from East Cowes 1827

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Cowes and the River Medina from East Cowes’ 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Cowes and the River Medina from East Cowes 1827
D20858
Turner Bequest CCXXVII a 55
Chalk, ink and pencil on blue wove paper, 140 x 191 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Inscribed in red ink ‘55’ bottom right (smudged)
Stamped in black ‘CCXXVII(a) 55’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is among dozens of blue paper studies presumably made in connection with the Cowes Regatta events in the late summer of 1827; see the Introduction to this subsection for other views westwards across to Cowes. Here the foreground comprises trees and buildings which have not survived extensive redevelopment; compare the bay and oriel windows in the watercolour of The Vine Inn at East Cowes, Isle of Wight by Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827), offered at Christie’s, London, on 14 June 2002 (lot 562).
Finberg categorised this sheet and several others in a section mainly comprising ‘East Cowes Castle’ views1 distinguished by their use of ink outlines, having made a division between the Isle of Wight blue paper drawings using that medium and those in pencil and chalk, which he grouped as ‘Yachts, &c., at Cowes’;2 in the present subsection the latter have been augmented by those in ink of relevant subjects other than East Cowes Castle, which are dealt with separately.
1
Finberg 1909, II, pp.700–1, CCXXVII a 1–57.
2
Ibid., p.702, CCXXVIII 1–44.
Technical notes:
Some blotting is apparent, sustained in the 1928 Tate Gallery flood when ink was offset to a sheet laid over this one during the recovery process (Tate D40525).
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
November 2015

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Cowes and the River Medina from East Cowes 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-cowes-and-the-river-medina-from-east-cowes-r1183389, accessed 25 April 2024.