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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner

Joseph Mallord William Turner Whalers c.1845

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Whalers’ c.1845
Whalers c.1845
D35253
Turner Bequest CCCLIII 14
Chalk and watercolour on white wove paper prepared with a grey wash, 221 x 328 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Inscribed in red ink ‘14’ bottom right (smudged)
Stamped in black ‘CCCLIII 14’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
A whaling ship with a smaller boat is seen at the right, while on the left lies a cluster of boats, their forms described with hasty flicks and drags of black and brown chalk. The moon, a circle of white chalk, appears high in the sky to the right. The area of white chalk scaling the horizon in the centre likely represents icebergs.
As Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll have noted,1 this sketch bears a distinct compositional relationship to the painting Turner exhibited in 1846, Hurrah! for the Whaler Erebus! Another Fish! (Tate N00546).2
Robert K. Wallace has read the image as depicting a white sun in the centre along the horizon juxtaposed with an erupting volcano.3
1
Butlin and Joll 1984, pp.261 under no.414, 268 under no.423; see also Hokanson 2016, p.33.
2
Ibid., pp.267–8 no.423, pl.426 (colour).
3
See Wallace 1988, pp.29–30.
Technical Notes:
In common with others in this sketchbook, the leaf is loose of its binding. Spots of the pigment used to prepare the ground have formed, likely to be the result of damage in the Tate Gallery flood of 1928.
Verso:
Blank

Amy Concannon
May 2025

How to cite

Amy Concannon, ‘Whalers c.1845’, catalogue entry, May 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/whalers-r1214161, accessed 11 July 2026.