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 Sailing Vessels in Portsmouth Harbour 1814

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sailing Vessels in Portsmouth Harbour’ 1814
Folio 166 Recto:
Sailing Vessels in Portsmouth Harbour 1814
D10179
Turner Bequest CXXXVI 166
Pencil on white wove paper, 82 x 119 mm
Inscribed in red ink ‘166’ top right, ascending vertically (smudged)
Stamped in black ‘CXXXVI – 166’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, this is a slight sketch of sailing vessels on the water, likely in Portsmouth Harbour, as Finberg identified it;1 there may be a profile of a cupola towards the right, perhaps that of Portsmouth Cathedral or one of the buildings within the naval base. The verso, D10180, is a related sketch of Portsmouth Harbour.
For the many sketches made at the vast naval review at Portsmouth in June 1814 occupy the middle of this sketchbook, see its Introduction, and under folio 23 verso (D10010).

Vanessa Otim
March 2025

1
See Finberg 1909, I, p.391.

How to cite

Vanessa Otim, ‘Sailing Vessels in Portsmouth Harbour 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/sailing-vessels-in-portsmouth-harbour-r1214084, accessed 31 July 2026.