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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > History Painting c.1799-1807 > On a Lee Shore (1) Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Group of Ships Riding at Anchor, Seen from the Shore c.1801-2

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Group of Ships Riding at Anchor, Seen from the Shore’ c.1801-2
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 1 Recto:
A Group of Ships Riding at Anchor, Seen from the Shore c.1801–2
D03974
Turner Bequest LXVII 1
Ink on white wove paper prepared with a grey-blue wash, 118 x 182 mm
Partial watermark ‘Hayes | 17’
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram below right of centre
Inscribed by Turner in brown ink ‘104’ ascending vertically on a vellum label at the gutter, glued round this page and the verso of folio 8 (D03984)
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘1’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LXVII 1’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This fluent sketch can be seen as belonging to the series of rapidly-observed marine subjects that features in the contemporary Studies for Pictures sketchbook (Tate D04104–D04116; Turner Bequest LXIX 90–101). It bears some relation to the subject matter of the painting Ships Bearing up for Anchorage (‘The Egremont Seapiece’; Tate T03868, displayed at Petworth House, West Sussex),1 exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1802.
1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.17 no.18, pl.14 (colour).
Technical notes:
For further discussion of Turner’s label and the issue of this sketchbook’s covers, see the technical notes in the Introduction.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed by the Executors of the Turner Bequest, Henry Scott Trimmer, Charles Turner, Charles Lock Eastlake and John Prescott Knight in ink ‘No 171 | H S Trimmer C Turner’ and in pencil ‘C.L.E.’ and ‘JPK’ top left.

Andrew Wilton
May 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Group of Ships Riding at Anchor, Seen from the Shore c.1801–2 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-group-of-ships-riding-at-anchor-seen-from-the-shore-r1178278, accessed 21 November 2024.