Joseph Mallord William Turner A Wreck, Possibly Related to 'Longships Lighthouse, Land's End' c.1834
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
A Wreck, Possibly Related to 'Longships Lighthouse, Land's End'
c.1834
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
A Wreck, Possibly Related to ‘Longships Lighthouse, Land’s End’ c.1834
D25163
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 41
Turner Bequest CCLXIII 41
Watercolour on white wove paper, 338 x 491 mm
Watermark ‘J Whatman | Turkey Mill | 1826’
Inscribed in red ink ‘41’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXIII – 41’ bottom right
Watermark ‘J Whatman | Turkey Mill | 1826’
Inscribed in red ink ‘41’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXIII – 41’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1963
Turner Watercolors from The British Museum: A Loan Exhibition Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, September–October 1963, Museum of Fine Arts of Houston, Texas, November 1963, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, December 1963–January 1964, Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, January–March 1964, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, March–April 1964, Brooklyn Museum, New York, May 1964, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, June–July 1964 (45, as ‘Fire at Sea’).
1966
Turner: Imagination and Reality, Museum of Modern Art, New York, March–May/June 1966 (45, reproduced, as ‘A Storm’, c.1826).
1979
J.M.W. Turner: Sea, Sky and Sun: Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Loaned by the British Museum, Tate Gallery, London, December 1979–July 1980 (no catalogue, as ‘A Storm’).
1997
Turner’s Watercolour Explorations 1810–1842, Tate Gallery, London, February–June 1997, Southampton City Art Gallery, June–September 1997 (71, reproduced, as ‘?Study for Longships Lighthouse, Land’s End’, c.1834).
1999
Turner’s Later Papers: A Study of the Manufacture, Selection and Use of his Drawing Papers 1820–1851, Tate Gallery, London, March–June 1999 (27, reproduced, as ‘?Study for “Longships Lighthouse, Lands End” c.1834’).
2002
Turner: Reflections of Sea and Light: Paintings and Watercolors by J.M.W. Turner from Tate, Baltimore Museum of Art, February–May 2002 (no catalogue).
2002
Turner y el mar: Acuarelas de la Tate, Fundación Juan March Madrid, September 2002–January 2003 (62, reproduced in colour, as ‘Naufragio, posiblemente relacionado con Longships Lighthouse, Land’s End’, c.1835–40).
2003
O mar e a luz: Aguarelas de Turner na colecção da Tate, Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, February–May 2003 (65, reproduced in colour, as ‘A Wreck, possibly related to “Longships Lighthouse, Land’s End”’, c.1835–40).
2007
Hockney on Turner Watercolours, Tate Britain, London, June 2007–February 2008 (no number, reproduced in colour, as ‘A Wreck, possibly related to “Longships Lighthouse, Land’s End”’, c.1835–40).
2009
Turner / Rothko, Tate Britain, London, March–July 2009 (no catalogue).
2011
Watercolour, Tate Britain, London, February–August 2011 (136, reproduced in colour, as ‘A Wreck, possibly related to “Longships Lighthouse, Land’s End”’, c.1835–40).
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.817, CCLXIII 41, as ‘A storm’. c.1820–30.
1963
Edward Croft-Murray, Turner Watercolors from The British Museum: A Loan Exhibition Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC 1963, p.20 no.45, as ‘Fire at Sea’.
1819
Martin Butlin, Aquarelle aus dem Turner-Nachlass: Les aquarelles du Legs Turner: Watercolours from the Turner Bequest 1819–1845, pl.7 (colour), as ‘Ship on Fire (?)’. c.1826–30.
1975
Gerald Wilkinson, Turner’s Colour Sketches 1820–34, London 1975, p.139, reproduced in colour, as ‘Sea study in black’.
1993
Michael Bockemühl, J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Die Welt des Lichts und der Farbe, Cologne 1991, J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: The World of Light and Colour, trans. Michael Claridge, Cologne 1993, p.38, reproduced in colour p.75, as ‘Ship on Fire (?)’. c.1826–30.
1997
Eric Shanes, Turner’s Watercolour Explorations 1810–1842, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, pp.18, 81, 95, 98, 101, 104 (p.81 no.71, reproduced, as ‘?Study for Longships Lighthouse, Land’s End’. c.1834, p.95 Appendix I under ‘England and Wales Series’, as ‘?Study for Longships Lighthouse, Land’s End’. c.1834, p.98 under ‘Land’s End, Cornwall’, p.101 under ‘Sea Sketches and Studies’ as ‘?Study for Longships Lighthouse, Land’s End’. c.1834, p.104 Appendix II, as ‘Study: ?Longships Lighthouse, Land’s End/paper test-sheet’).
1834
Peter Bower, Turner’s Later Papers: A Study of the Manufacture, Selection and Use of his Drawing Papers 1820–1851, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1999, pp.56–7 no.27, reproduced, as ‘?Study for “Longships Lighthouse, Lands End” c.1834’, pl.27A (transmitted light image of watermark), 27B (micrograph of surface).
2007
Max Hollein and Raphael Rosenberg, Turner Hugo Moreau: Entdeckung der Abstraktion, exhibition catalogue, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt 2007, Abb.43 (colour), as ‘Brennendes Schiff (?). c.1835–40.
2007
David Blayney Brown, Turner Watercolours, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, London 2007, reproduced in colour p.[81] (detail), p.87, reproduced in colour, as ‘A Wreck (possibly related to “Longships Lighthouse, Land’s End”)’. c.1835–40.
2007
Simon Grant (ed.) and David Blayney Brown, Hockney on Turner Watercolours, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, London 2007, p.48, reproduced in colour, as ‘A Wreck (possibly related to “Longships Lighthouse, Land’s End”)’. c.1835–40.
2008
Angela Madesani, Hiroyuki Masuyama: After J.M.W. Turner – Turner’s Journey from London to Venice/After J.M.W. Turner – Il viaggio di Turner da Londra a Venezia, exhibition catalogue, Studio la Città, Verona 2008, reproduced in colour p.38, as ‘A Wreck’, 1835–40.
This is one of eight ‘colour beginnings’ catalogued here as Land’s End subjects; the others are Tate D25129, D25165, D25172, D25274, D36323, D36324 and D36326 (Turner Bequest CCLXIII 7, 43, 50, 152, CCCLXV 32, 33, 35). A further colour study has been proposed as a Land’s End view among other possibilities (Tate D25185; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 63). For Turner’s 1811 pencil sketches at Land’s End, see under D25129.
Eric Shanes has suggested that the present work, D25165, D25274 and D36326 (CCLXIII 43, 152, CCCLXV 35) relate in varying degrees to the watercolour Longships Lighthouse, Land’s End of about 1834 (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles),1 engraved in 1836 for the Picturesque Views in England and Wales (no impressions held at Tate).2 The most closely related pencil study in the 1811 Cornwall and Devon sketchbook (albeit with many variations) is Tate D41303 (Turner Bequest CXXV a 27).
Assuming the Land’s End connection is correct, this is the least topographical of the four colour studies, linked only by its fundamental structure of differentiated upper quadrants and a continuous lower half, showing ‘how far from representationalism Turner could stray when establishing the foundations of highly representational images’.3 Gerald Wilkinson notes that ‘Finberg gave it the title, “Storm”, but this is either too specific or too vague’ and writes of the ‘drawing, if you can call such calligraphy drawing’.4 Michael Bockemühl has described the technique at some length: ‘a large black area of colour and another of a sketchy vermilion red ... extremely heavily washed’, with the outlines of ‘the hull of a ship, while the liquid marks are dispelled like smoke and fire’.5
In 2008 the German-based Japanese painter and photographer Hiroyuki Masuyama (born 1968) produced an LED lightbox based on the present work, as one of a series reinterpreting Turner’s landscapes, combining the original image with photographic landscape and architectural elements.6
See also the introductions to the present subsection of identified subjects and the overall England and Wales ‘colour beginnings’ grouping to which this work has been assigned.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed in pencil ‘14’ centre right, upside down; inscribed in pencil ‘AB 92 P | O’ and CCLXIII.41’ bottom right; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram above ‘CCLXIII – 41’ bottom left. There is a little grey spotting or offsetting towards the bottom centre; the left-hand and centre two thirds of the sheet have darkened.
Blank; inscribed in pencil ‘14’ centre right, upside down; inscribed in pencil ‘AB 92 P | O’ and CCLXIII.41’ bottom right; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram above ‘CCLXIII – 41’ bottom left. There is a little grey spotting or offsetting towards the bottom centre; the left-hand and centre two thirds of the sheet have darkened.
The ‘AB’ number corresponds with the endorsement on one of the parcels of works sorted by John Ruskin during his survey of the Turner Bequest, in this case classified by him as ‘Colour effects. Valueless’.1
Matthew Imms
March 2013
How to cite
Matthew Imms, ‘A Wreck, Possibly Related to ‘Longships Lighthouse, Land’s End’ c.1834 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2013, https://www