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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Folkestone and the Medway c.1821-2 > Medway Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Ships on the River Medway under a Dramatic Sky c.1821

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Ships on the River Medway under a Dramatic Sky’ c.1821
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 2 Verso:
Ships on the River Medway under a Dramatic Sky c.1821
D17368
Turner Bequest CXCIX 2a
Pencil on white wove paper, 190 x 112 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Warm’ ‘half [...]’ top centre, ‘Warm’ ‘Grey’ ‘Blue’ towards top, ‘V [?light]’ towards top left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned vertically, towards the top of this page Turner composes a study of vessels on the river, which Finberg identified specifically as the River Medway.1 A significant portion of the page above the water and boats is occupied with a dramatic sketch of the expansive, cloudy sky. Scribbles, hatches, and rippled lines intersect sporadically with Turner’s inscriptions, which relate to the fickle and blending colours of the prospect. The vessels themselves sit just below the watery horizon.
At the bottom of the page, made with the sketchbook orientated horizontally according to foliation, is a section of a lightly rendered drawing which continues across the gutter onto folio 3 recto (D17369). Finberg’s title for this and the facing sheet also locates this drawing on the River Medway.2 On the present page a slice of gestural topography is indicated, as well as a simple outline of a vessel with three masts, each comprised only of a single pencil line. For an explanation of the remainder of the composition, see the entry for folio 3 recto (D17369).

Maud Whatley
January 2016

1
Finberg 1909, I, p.607.
2
Ibid.

How to cite

Maud Whatley, ‘Ships on the River Medway under a Dramatic Sky c.1821 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 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-ships-on-the-river-medway-under-a-dramatic-sky-r1184645, accessed 20 May 2024.