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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Louis-Philippe at Portsmouth 1844 > Studies Relating to the Arrival of Louis ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Arrival of Louis-Philippe: The 'Gomer' in Portsmouth Harbour 1844

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Arrival of Louis-Philippe: The 'Gomer' in Portsmouth Harbour’ 1844
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
The Arrival of Louis-Philippe: The ‘Gomer’ in Portsmouth Harbour 1844
D35981
Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 138
Watercolour on white wove paper, 237 x 318 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘1607’ bottom right
Inscribed in red ink ‘138’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCLXIV – 138’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Like the other works grouped here, this relates to the arrival of Louis-Philippe, King of the French, at Portsmouth Harbour on 8 October 1844, as discussed in the Introductions to this subsection and the overall section.1 This is the most pictorially developed of the watercolours in this subsection, and the key to identifying the subject and the sequence in general. Andrew Wilton initially described it as a ‘complex scene economically noted in red and black: the subject is probably some ceremonial occasion; or it may be connected with the series of whaling subjects on which Turner was engaged in 1845–6’2 (see below). David Blayney Brown noted that it shows ‘a vessel like a royal yacht’, connecting it potentially with Louis-Philippe’s arrival or Queen Victoria’s return visit in 1845.3
From contemporary sources, Robert Upstone was able to rule out the two-masted Victoria and Albert I used on the latter occasion and confirm the subject as the Gomer, the King’s large and distinctive hybrid sail-steamship.4 Compare in particular the detailed 1846 painting Débarquement de Louis-Philippe à Portsmouth, le 8 octobre 1844 by Eugène Isabey (1803–1886; Château de Versailles), and see Tate D35959 (Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 116), which appears to show the Gomer’s stern. Upstone described the ‘throng of small boats’ in the foreground, suggesting that the ‘lack of detail gives something of the feel of the blur of frenetic activity and celebration of the crowd’.5
As noted in the overall Introduction, James Hamilton has ingeniously suggested that two paintings with foregrounds filled with rather overloaded boats, ‘Hurrah! for the Whaler Erebus! Another Fish!’ (Tate N00546)6 and Whalers (Boiling Blubber) Entangled in Flaw Ice, Endeavouring to Extricate Themselves (Tate N00547),7 began as depictions of Louis-Philippe’s arrival. He has specifically linked the foreshortened ship on the left of Boiling Blubber with the present view of the Gomer.8
1
See also Upstone 1993, p.52, Warrell 2013, p.9, and Smiles 2014, p.168.
2
Wilton 1974, p.172.
3
See Brown 1987, p.20.
4
See Upstone 1993, p.52.
5
Ibid., p.53.
6
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, pp.267–8 no.423, pl.426 (colour).
7
Ibid., pp.270–1 no.426, pl.427 (colour).
8
See Hamilton 2012, p.16.
Verso:
Blank; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram over ‘CCCLXIV – 138’ towards bottom left.

Matthew Imms
September 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Arrival of Louis-Philippe: The ‘Gomer’ in Portsmouth Harbour 1844 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-arrival-of-louis-philippe-the-gomer-in-portsmouth-r1185703, accessed 19 April 2024.