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 Regatta Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?A Coastal Fort; a Yacht Passing a Moored Warship; Figures in a Rowing Boat 1827

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?A Coastal Fort; a Yacht Passing a Moored Warship; Figures in a Rowing Boat’ 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 20 Verso:
?A Coastal Fort; a Yacht Passing a Moored Warship; Figures in a Rowing Boat 1827
D18027
Turner Bequest CCVII 20a
Pencil on white wove paper, 74 x 100 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
At the top is the low profile of a coastal building, perhaps a fort. The central subject is a large, moored warship with a yacht passing its starboard side; compare the vessel below the distant castle 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
At the bottom right the occupants of a large rowing boat are shown, possibly including women; the sketch continues a little way onto folio 21 recto opposite (D18028). The slight verticals may indicate tossed oars; compare folios 9 verso and 47 verso (D18006, D18080). For more on studies in this sketchbook relating to the regatta events at Cowes from late July 1827 onwards, see the sketchbook Introduction.

Matthew Imms
December 2014

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).

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?A Coastal Fort; a Yacht Passing a Moored Warship; Figures in a Rowing Boat 1827 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2014, 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-a-coastal-fort-a-yacht-passing-a-moored-warship-figures-in-a-r1183515, accessed 24 September 2024.