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 and Figures in Portsmouth Harbour 1814

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sailing Vessels and Figures in Portsmouth Harbour’ 1814
Folio 166 Verso:
Sailing Vessels and Figures in Portsmouth Harbour 1814
D10180
Turner Bequest CXXXVI 166a
Pencil on white wove paper, 82 x 119 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, this is a slight sketch of Portsmouth Harbour. The building with arched features on the left may be Fort Blockhouse, with its gunports west of the harbour entrance on the Gosport side (compare folio 167 verso; D10182); there are sailing vessels on the right, and groups of figures at the centre, possibly on a quay or in small boats.
The recto, D10179, is of 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

How to cite

Vanessa Otim, ‘Sailing Vessels and Figures 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-and-figures-in-portsmouth-harbour-r1214085, accessed 31 July 2026.