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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Likely English, Scottish or Welsh ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Men in a Small Sailing Boat c.1822-7

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Men in a Small Sailing Boat’ c.1822-7
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Men in a Small Sailing Boat c.1822–7
D41444
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 202v
Pencil on white wove paper, 369 x 229 mm
Watermark ‘John Hall | 1822’
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in pencil ‘AB 194P’ towards top right, ascending vertically
Inscribed in pencil ‘CCLXIII | 202’ towards top right, ascending vertically
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Viewable with the sheet turned vertically, this slight drawing of men in a passing boat occupies only an eighth of the paper, and was apparently drawn while it was folded up as described in the technical notes below.
There is a watercolour study of a river scene on the recto (D25324; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 202), under which the dating followed here in relation to its possible subject is discussed.
Technical notes:
Finberg described the sheet as ‘note paper which has been folded’.1 There are three regular folds from when the sheet was folded in half and then into quarters, undulating creases the other way showing it was lightly folded again, and diagonal marks at two corners and at the middle of one long side where one corner was creased at that time.

Matthew Imms
August 2016

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.829.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Men in a Small Sailing Boat c.1822–7 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-men-in-a-small-sailing-boat-r1184456, accessed 09 May 2024.