J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Folkestone and the Medway c.1821-2 > Medway Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Bow and Bowsprit of a Ship c.1821

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Bow and Bowsprit of a Ship’ c.1821
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 33 Recto:
The Bow and Bowsprit of a Ship c.1821
D17417
Turner Bequest CXCIX 33
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 190 mm
Partial watermark ‘nard | 20’
Stamped in black ‘CXCIX – 33’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Continuing from brief beginnings on the facing page, folio 32 verso (D17416), here Turner produces a drawing of the bow and bowsprit of a ship. It illustrates how a detailed and elaborate web of braces, clew lines, and sheets enable the bowsprit, effectively a mast, to support the sails of the ship from a forty degree angle. This example is clearly crossed with a yard and sail close to its middle point. Turner also elaborates the surface of the deck, capturing an environment cluttered with complex paraphernalia.
Towards top left, a small, isolated drawing hones in on two pairs of deadeyes threaded with cordage and pulled taut, stretched to form a diagonal axis. At bottom right, a largely illegible sketch is loosely composed, left open ended on its rightmost side.

Maud Whatley
January 2016

How to cite

Maud Whatley, ‘The Bow and Bowsprit of a Ship c.1821 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-bow-and-bowsprit-of-a-ship-r1184694, accessed 26 April 2024.