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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > West Country and Yorkshire 1814-17 > Review at Portsmouth Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Inscriptions by Turner: Principal Ships at the Portsmouth Naval Review 1814

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Inscriptions by Turner: Principal Ships at the Portsmouth Naval Review’ 1814
Folio 2 Recto:
Inscriptions by Turner: Principal Ships at the Portsmouth Naval Review 1814
D09988
Turner Bequest CXXXVI 2
Pencil on white wove paper, 119 x 82 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner with a list in two columns (see main catalogue entry)
Inscribed in red ink ‘2’ bottom right (smudged)
Stamped in black ‘CXXXVI – 2’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The page is taken up with the following notes:
Norge Cpt Rainer
R Admiral [ ?Forte]
St Domingo Capt Pechell
C J Walker
Bedford [arrow] {V A Js. Martin
Rodney {Cpt C. Inglis
Chatham [...] R H
[?Honbl] C. Blackwood
Ville de Paris L H A
Cpt Jones
Impregnable {The Standard
{ C Adam
Prince A Sir R Bickerton Bt
Folkes
Tigre Cpt Halliday
Queen {R A Sir F Laforey Bt
{ Colville
Sceptre Devonshire
Magnificent Lake
Stirling Castle Butterfield
Montague Heywood
This is a list of the principal ships and their respective captains in the fleet at the major naval review that Turner attended on 23 June 1814 off Portsmouth, when he made many rapid sketches, as discussed in the sketchbook’s Introduction.
Finberg provided selected notes to his accurate transcription, interpreting ‘L H A’ as ‘Lord High Admiral’s flag, flown by Board of Admiralty’, ‘Folkes’ as ‘Capt. G. Fowke, in Navy List, 1814’, and ‘Colville’ as ‘Lord Colville’. The arrow after ‘Bedford’ links the ship to ‘C J Walker’ on the previous line. The source of Turner’s careful listing is unclear, but was presumably either a programme circulated on the occasion or a contemporary report.
Verso:
Blank

Vanessa Otim
March 2025

How to cite

Vanessa Otim, ‘Inscriptions by Turner: Principal Ships at the Portsmouth Naval Review 1814’, catalogue entry, March 2025, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, July 2026, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/inscriptions-by-turner-principal-ships-at-the-portsmouth-naval-review-r1213890, accessed 31 July 2026.