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 Rough Sea; Coastlines; Sailing Boats 1827

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Rough Sea; Coastlines; Sailing Boats’ 1827
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 30 Recto:
A Rough Sea; Coastlines; Sailing Boats 1827
D18046
Turner Bequest CCVII 30
Pencil on white wove paper, 74 x 100 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘yellow grey’ towards top left, and ‘[?white]’ towards top centre on sea
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘30’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCVII – 30’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Towards the top left is a study of a heavy sea with colour notes and slight indications of masts and a coastline beyond. Compare the state and colouring of the sea 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 top and bottom are profiles of low coastlines, probably around the Isle of Wight.
There are also schematic studies of yachts under sail, made with the page turned vertically each way. 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 Rough Sea; Coastlines; Sailing Boats 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-rough-sea-coastlines-sailing-boats-r1183534, accessed 23 April 2024.