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 Yachts under Sail 1827

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Yachts under Sail’ 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Yachts under Sail 1827
D20900
Turner Bequest CCXXVIII 40
Gouache and pencil on blue wove paper, 142 x 192 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram below right of centre
Stamped in black ‘CCCCVIII 40’ 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 yacht towards the left is loosely comparable with one in the same position in the painting East Cowes Castle, the Seat of J. Nash, Esq.; the Regatta Beating to Windward, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1828 (Indianapolis Museum of Art).1
As noted in the Introduction, the present work and thirty-four other sheets were recorded in Finberg’s 1909 Inventory as unmounted, and ‘formed part of [a] parcel’ labelled by John Ruskin ‘O. 232. Chalk scrawls on grey. Rubbish.’2
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.150 no.242, pl.246 (colour).
2
Finberg 1909, II, p.702.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed in red ink ‘417’ bottom left; inscribed in pencil ‘417’ bottom left; inscribed in pencil ‘CCXXVIII . 40’ top left, upside down. Despite Finberg’s statement that this sheet was unmounted, the remnants of white mounting paper or tape are evident at the corners.

Matthew Imms
November 2015

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Yachts 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-yachts-under-sail-r1183435, accessed 25 April 2024.