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 ?Fishermen in a Rowing Boat on the Shore, with Yachts under Sail Beyond 1827

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?Fishermen in a Rowing Boat on the Shore, with Yachts under Sail Beyond’ 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
?Fishermen in a Rowing Boat on the Shore, with Yachts under Sail Beyond 1827
D20862
Turner Bequest CCXXVIII 2
Gouache and pencil on blue wove paper, 138 x 195 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom centre
Stamped in black ‘CCCCVIII 2’ 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 others showing shipping under sail and in some cases apparently racing. The figures in or beside the small boat in the foreground may be fishermen or sailors rather than visitors to the regatta, as one has a characteristic sou’wester hat.
As noted in the Introduction, the present work and eight other sheets were recorded in Finberg’s 1909 Inventory as mounted, and ‘formed part of a bundle’ labelled by John Ruskin ‘O. 166. Shipping, &c. rubbish’,1 although the nine are now all numbered ‘232 | O’ on their versos in common with the rest of the Turner Bequest CCXXVIII grouping, which Finberg noted as unmounted and ‘part of parcel endorsed, “O. 232. Chalk scrawls on grey. Rubbish.”’2
1
Finberg 1909, II, p.702.
2
Ibid.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed in pencil ‘232 | O’ top left, upside down; inscribed in pencil ‘CCXXVIII – 2’ bottom right.

Matthew Imms
November 2015

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?Fishermen in a Rowing Boat on the Shore, with Yachts under Sail Beyond 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-fishermen-in-a-rowing-boat-on-the-shore-with-yachts-under-r1183394, accessed 19 April 2024.