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

This work exhibits the greatest colour range of all the drawings in the Whalers sketchbook and, unlike many of the others, was not produced in a flurry of inspiration but rather results from a session of close observation. The combination of colour – green, blue, yellow, pink – and fluidity of the watercolour is effective in suggesting the smooth, iridescent surface of the fish. The three fish seen here are of the type known as John Dory (or St Pierre).1 They were perhaps observed by Turner in the harbour at Margate or else at Mrs Booth’s lodging house there; John Ruskin noted an instance of the late 1830s in which Turner’s insistence on drawing the mackerel awaiting preparation for dinner made Mrs Booth’s cook impatient.2 This is one of some ten watercolours Turner made in the early 1840s of various types of fish; for another example see Tate D25462 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 339).3

Technical Notes:

There is a rectangular area of discolouration at the centre, probably from exposure during early National Gallery display. The edges of the leaf are discoloured, particularly the right; at the left-hand side is a strip of prominent spots of the ground used to prepare the paper. These effects are likely the result of the Tate Gallery flood of 1928. The leaf is mounted.

Verso:

Blank; inscribed in pencil ‘CCCLIII – 22’ bottom centre and in red ink by John Ruskin ‘1160’ bottom left, inscribed in pencil ‘6’ reading vertically at centre, and stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram over ‘CCCLIII–22’ at centre.