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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > French Tour 1821 > Paris, Seine and Dieppe Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Bows, and Rigging of a Vessel at Greenwich 1821

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Bows, and Rigging of a Vessel at Greenwich’ 1821
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 12 Recto:
Bows, and Rigging of a Vessel at Greenwich 1821
D18543
Turner Bequest CCXI 12
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCXI – 12’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is one of four pages of sketches of a two-masted vessel with an eagle figurehead docked at Greenwich that Turner sketched in this book (see Tate D18539; Turner Bequest CCXI 9a). The present sketch brings us close to the starboard bow where the figurehead can be clearly made out, as well as the rigging at the top of the foremast. Most of the rest of the vessel has been omitted, but can be seen more clearly in another sketch (Tate D18537; Turner Bequest CCXI 8a). It is possible that these sketches were made in August 1822 and are connected to George IV’s sea journey from Greenwich to Leith for a royal visit to Scotland.1

Thomas Ardill
February 2013

1
Warrell 1999, pp.24, 253 note 42.

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Bows, and Rigging of a Vessel at Greenwich 1821 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-bows-and-rigging-of-a-vessel-at-greenwich-r1146239, accessed 20 May 2024.