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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > First Italian Tour 1819-20 > Milan to Venice Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Studies of Venetian Boats Including a Gondola, Figures and Headgear 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Studies of Venetian Boats Including a Gondola, Figures and Headgear’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 80 Recto:
Studies of Venetian Boats Including a Gondola, Figures and Headgear 1819
D14468
Turner Bequest CLXXV 80
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 185 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?Dirt] Boats’ towards top left, ‘Head and Stern alike | Yellow and Orange’, ‘Brass | some Red | Black | some Yellow’ left of centre, ‘D[?ogana] Boat’ at centre, ‘[?G...]’ below centre, and ‘Red’, ‘Red and White Stripd | Jacket’, Blue’ and Red P[...]’ towards bottom right, on and around boats and figures
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘80’ bottom left, upside down and ‘300’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CLXXV 80’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg subsequently annotated his 1909 Inventory entry (‘Various sketches of gondolas, figures, &c.’): ‘“[?Dirt]. Boat” [“]Dogana Boat”, Black Some yellow. Some Red Brass”’.1 These studies of boats, boatmen and their costumes fall between views on the Grand Canal around the Rialto Bridge, themselves crammed with boats of all sorts, although Turner also mentions the Dogana (see in particular folio 40 recto; D14389) in his annotations.
For other studies of boats in this sketchbook, see under folio 37 recto (D14383), and for figures see under folio 18 verso (D14351).
1
Undated MS note by A.J. Finberg (died 1939) in copy of Finberg 1909, Tate Britain Prints and Drawings Room, I, p.515.
Technical notes:
There is a small oily stain near the centre which has also evident on the verso (D14469).

Matthew Imms
March 2017

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Studies of Venetian Boats Including a Gondola, Figures and Headgear 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2017, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, July 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-studies-of-venetian-boats-including-a-gondola-figures-and-r1186580, accessed 18 April 2024.