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 Studies of a Stern and Bows; a Warship at Anchor; a Sailing Boat Passing Ships 1827

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Studies of a Stern and Bows; a Warship at Anchor; a Sailing Boat Passing Ships’ 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 25 Recto:
Studies of a Stern and Bows; a Warship at Anchor; a Sailing Boat Passing Ships 1827
D18036
Turner Bequest CCVII 25
Pencil on white wove paper, 100 x 74 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘25’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCVII – 25’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned vertically, at the top left and right are studies of the stern and bows of a ship or ships; across the middle is a distant view of a large three-masted warship at anchor; and at the bottom is a crowded scene of a sailing boat passing three or more ships.
The central ship is comparable with the one moored in the background of the oil Sketch for ‘East Cowes Castle, the Regatta Beating to Windward’ No.3, of 1827 (Tate N01993),1 and the finished 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).2 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.160 no.262, pl.267 (colour).
2
Ibid., p.150 no.242, pl.246 (colour).

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Studies of a Stern and Bows; a Warship at Anchor; a Sailing Boat Passing Ships 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-studies-of-a-stern-and-bows-a-warship-at-anchor-a-sailing-r1183524, accessed 25 April 2024.