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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Margate, London and Surrey c.1829-45 > Kent Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Children Playing on the Seashore with a Steamer and Pier Beyond, Perhaps at Margate c.1830

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Children Playing on the Seashore with a Steamer and Pier Beyond, Perhaps at Margate’ c.1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 2 Recto:
Children Playing on the Seashore with a Steamer and Pier Beyond, Perhaps at Margate c.1830
D35760
Turner Bequest CCCLXIII 2
Pencil on white wove paper, 76 x 98 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘The lost vessel’ centre left, and ‘B [...]’ centre right
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘2’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCLXIII – 2’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The slight study on the upper half of the page shows figures, apparently comprising or including children, on a beach with their small model boat among the breakers and a steamer near a pier beyond to the right. Within the bottom right of this composition is a thumbnail sketch, framed by pencil lines; it includes buildings, figures and possibly a harbour beyond. This may be Margate; see under folio 10 verso (D35776).
As Mordechai Omer has noted, ‘The lost vessel’ may indicate not just a mishap with a toy, but a metaphor for the disappointments and trials of life;1 for further comment see under the scene of ‘Marine Dabblers’ in the contemporary sketchbook of that name (Tate D22514; Turner Bequest CCXLI 46a) and the earlier Liber Studiorum subject it recalls (Tate D08133; Turner Bequest CXVII F).
1
See Omer 1975, p.701.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
September 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Children Playing on the Seashore with a Steamer and Pier Beyond, Perhaps at Margate c.1830 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-children-playing-on-the-seashore-with-a-steamer-and-pier-r1183723, accessed 20 May 2024.