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 Study of the Hull of a Yacht 1827

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Study of the Hull of a Yacht’ 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Study of the Hull of a Yacht 1827
D20869
Turner Bequest CCXXVIII 9
Pencil on blue wove paper, 140 x 196 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?B...]’ bottom centre
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCCVIII 9’ 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; for several other closely observed studies of individual vessels, see the Introduction to this subsection. Here the port side of the hull of a yacht is the focus, seen from astern with the lower edge of the mainsail lightly indicated.
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’ bottom right; inscribed in pencil ‘CCXXVIII . 9’ top left, upside down.

Matthew Imms
November 2015

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Study of the Hull of a Yacht 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-study-of-the-hull-of-a-yacht-r1183401, accessed 19 April 2024.