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

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

Joseph Mallord William Turner Sea Piece c.1845

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sea Piece’ c.1845
Sea Piece c.1845
D35259
Turner Bequest CCCLIII 20
Chalk and watercolour on white wove paper prepared with a grey wash, 220 x 229 mm
Watermark ‘J Whatman | Turkey Mills | 1823’
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Inscribed in red ink ‘20’ bottom right (smudged and illegible)
Stamped in black ‘CCCLIII 20’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This drawing sees Turner continuing the theme of the dark, stormy sea of other drawings in this Whalers book. A grey watercolour wash establishes the dark background onto which he has sketched in the outline of a ship on the horizon, and perhaps another to the left. Vigorous hatching of black chalk suggests a turbulent sea, with a pool of white chalk possibly meant to represent foam generated by the violent water.
Technical Notes:
This work is on the inside back cover of the sketchbook, albeit numbered ‘20’ in sequence with the leaves within; D35260 and D35261 (Turner Bequest CCCLIII 21, 22) complete Finberg’s 1909 Inventory sequence, having by then been separately exhibited).1
Pigment has possibly been lifted off the page and offset onto the verso of D35258 (CCCLIII 19).
1
See Finberg 1909, II, p.1162.
Verso:
The sketchbook’s buff card back cover bears slight adventitious marks in black watercolour.

Amy Concannon
May 2025

How to cite

Amy Concannon, ‘Sea Piece 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/sea-piece-r1214167, accessed 11 July 2026.