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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Louis-Philippe at Portsmouth 1844 > Louis-Philippe at Portsmouth sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Flags and Masts at Portsmouth 1844

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Flags and Masts at Portsmouth’ 1844
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 7 Verso:
Flags and Masts at Portsmouth 1844
D35696
Turner Bequest CCCLXII 7
Pencil on white wove paper, 74 x 116 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Various large flags are noted, and the adjacent vertical forms may be masts, or possibly shipped oars. Like the other rapid sketches in this book, this relates to the arrival of Louis-Philippe, King of the French, at Portsmouth Harbour on 8 October 1844, as discussed in the Introductions to the sketchbook and the overall section.
The drawing on folio 8 recto opposite (D35698) is recorded as being shown in the 1987 Tate Gallery exhibition Turner and the Channel;1 the present page would thus have been exhibited by default, but is not mentioned in the catalogue.
The blank recto is inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘7’ and stamped in black ‘CCCLXII – 7’ at the bottom right. For numerous instances of blank, unaccessioned rectos in this sketchbook, see the technical notes in the Introduction.

Matthew Imms
September 2016

1
David Blayney Brown, Turner and the Channel: Themes and Variations c.1845, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1987, p.23 no.25.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Flags and Masts at Portsmouth 1844 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, March 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-flags-and-masts-at-portsmouth-r1185645, accessed 22 November 2024.