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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Little Liber c.1823-6 > Studies for Possible 'Little Liber' ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Sailing Boat at Sea with Blustery Clouds c.1823-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Sailing Boat at Sea with Blustery Clouds’ c.1823-6
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
A Sailing Boat at Sea with Blustery Clouds c.1823–6
D35926
Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 83
Watercolour on white wove paper, 222 x 293 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Inscribed in red ink ‘83’ bottom right (faint)
Stamped in black ‘CCCLXIV – 83’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Although Finberg places this work in one of his later portmanteau sections of separate sheets in his 1909 Inventory, he noted that it was perhaps ‘earlier than 1830’.1 It is dated here in line with the period of the ‘Little Liber’ series, by comparison with the maritime subject, light tones and dynamic, loose handling of one of the canonical watercolour designs, Ship in a Storm (Tate D25432; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 309a). See also Tate D25339 and D36317 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 217, CCCLXV 27a) in the present subsection.
1
Finberg 1909, II, p.1182.
Technical notes:
The right-hand edge is irregular. The surface is somewhat soiled towards the left and the bottom.
Verso:
Blank, save for ochre and red test strokes of watercolour at the bottom right.

Matthew Imms
September 2016

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Sailing Boat at Sea with Blustery Clouds c.1823–6 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-a-sailing-boat-at-sea-with-blustery-clouds-r1183693, accessed 21 November 2024.