Joseph Mallord William Turner Ships in a Breeze ('The Egremont Sea Piece') circa 1806-7
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
Ships in a Breeze ('The Egremont Sea Piece')
circa 1806-7
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Ships in a Breeze (‘The Egremont Sea Piece’) circa 1806–7
D08114
Turner Bequest CXVI M
Turner Bequest CXVI M
Pencil and watercolour on off-white wove writing paper, 184 x 262 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1904
National Gallery, London, various dates to at least 1904 (502, as ‘Ships in a Breeze’).
1921
The Liber Studiorum by Turner: Drawings, Etchings, and First State Mezzotint Engravings with Some Additional Engravers’ Proofs and 51 of the Original Copperplates, National Gallery, Millbank [Tate Gallery], London, November 1921–November 1922 (not in catalogue).
1922
Original Drawings, Etchings, Mezzotints, and Copperplates for the “Liber Studiorum” by J.M.W. Turner, R.A., Whitworth Institute Art Galleries, Manchester, December 1922–March 1923 (not in catalogue).
1935
Four Screens, British Museum, London, July 1935–July 1936 (frame no.5; no catalogue).
1971
Watercolours by J.M.W. Turner (1778 [sic] –1851): Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, January–March 1971 (7, as ‘The Egremont Sea Piece’).
1975
Turner 1775–1851: zhivopis', risunok, akvarel', Hermitage Museum, Leningrad, October–November 1975, Pushkin Museum, Moscow, December 1975–January 1976 (8, reproduced p.[57]).
1978
Turner 1775–1851, Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, December 1978–February 1979 (18, reproduced).
1979
Exposicion del gran pintor ingles, William Turner: Oleos y acuarelas: Collecciones de la Tate Gallery, British Museum y otros museos ingleses, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, August–September 1979 (BM17, reproduced p.26).
1979
Oleos y acuarelas de Joseph Mallord William Turner, Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela, October[–?November] 1979 (BM 17).
1982
Turner and the Sea: Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Loaned by the British Museum, Tate Gallery, London, January–June 1982 (no catalogue).
1989
Turner: The Second Decade: Watercolours and Drawings from the Turner Bequest 1800–1810, Tate Gallery, London, January–March 1989 (22, reproduced, and in colour p.12, as ‘The Egremont Sea Piece’).
1997
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Bank Austria Kunstforum, Vienna, March–June 1997 (40, reproduced in colour, and detail p.[182]).
1997
J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: A Tate Gallery Collection Exhibition, Yokohama Museum of Art, June–August 1997, Fukuoka Art Museum, September–October 1997, Nagoya City Art Museum, October–December 1997 (33, reproduced in colour).
2002
Turner Watercolours, Tate Britain, London, August 2002–May 2003 (no catalogue).
2003
The Sun Rising through Vapour: Turner’s Early Seascapes, Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham, October 2003–January 2004 (12, reproduced in colour).
2008
Reisen mit William Turner: J.M.W. Turner: Das Liber Studiorum, Galerie Stihl, Waiblingen, May–September 2008 (no number, reproduced in colour).
Engraved:
Etching and mezzotint by J.M.W. Turner and Charles Turner, untitled, published Charles Turner, 20 February 1808
Etching and mezzotint by J.M.W. Turner and Charles Turner, untitled, published Charles Turner, 20 February 1808
References
1859
John Burnet and Peter Cunningham, Turner and his Works: Illustrated with Examples from his Pictures, and Critical Remarks on his Principles of Painting, 2nd ed., revised by Henry Murray, London 1859, p.121 no.32, as ‘Sketch for a Sea-piece.–Harbour Mouth’.
1862
Walter Thornbury, The Life of J.M.W. Turner, R.A. Founded on Letters and Papers Furnished by his Friends and Fellow-Academicians, London 1862 [1861], vol.II, p.388 no.42 or 43, as ‘Sketch for Sea Piece’ and ‘Ditto’ respectively.
1862
Turner’s Liber Studiorum. Second Series. Photographs from Twenty-One Original Drawings by J.M.W. Turner, R.A. in the South Kensington Museum. Published under the Authority of the Department of Science and Art, London and Manchester 1862, reproduced pl.[21], as ‘Sketch of Shipping’.
1872
[J.E. Taylor and Henry Vaughan], Exhibition Illustrative of Turner’s Liber Studiorum, Containing Choice Impressions of the First States, Etchings, Touched Proofs, together with the Unpublished Plates, and a Few Original Drawings for the Work, exhibition catalogue, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London 1872, p.21 under no.10, ‘Sea Piece’.
1878
W[illiam] G[eorge] Rawlinson, Turner’s Liber Studiorum, A Description and a Catalogue, London 1878, p.26 under no.10, ‘Ships in a Breeze. ... (Generally known as “The Egremont Sea-Piece.”)’.
1885
Rev. Stopford [Augustus] Brooke, Notes on the Liber Studiorum of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., revised ed., London 1885, pp.[36]–8.
1897
Walter Thornbury, The Life of J.M.W. Turner, R.A. Founded on Letters and Papers Furnished by his Friends and Fellow-Academicians: A New Edition, London 1897, p.584 no.42 or 43, as ‘Sketch for Sea Piece’ and ‘D[itt]o’ respectively.
1904
E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn eds., Library Edition: The Works of John Ruskin: Volume XIII: Turner: The Harbours of England; Catalogues and Notes, London 1904, p.632 no.502, as ‘Ships in a Breeze. Otherwise known as “The Egremont Sea-piece,”...’.
1906
Ibid., Volume XXI: The Ruskin Art Collection at Oxford: Catalogues, Notes, and Instructions, London 1906, p.216 (‘Catalogue of the Rudimentary Series’ in Instructions in Practice of Elementary Drawing ...).
1906
W[illiam] G[eorge] Rawlinson, Turner’s Liber Studiorum, A Description and a Catalogue. Second Edition, Revised Throughout, London 1906, p.33 under no.10, ‘Ships in a Breeze. ... (Generally known as “The Egremont Sea-Piece.”)’.
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.317, CXVI M.
1921
Untitled typescript list of works relating to 1921 and 1922 Liber Studiorum exhibitions, [circa 1921], Tate exhibition files, Tate Archive TG 92/9/2, p.1.
1924
Alexander J. Finberg, The History of Turner’s Liber Studiorum with a New Catalogue Raisonné, London 1924, reproduced p.[38], p.39 under no.10.
1974
Martin Butlin, Andrew Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, pp.49, 62.
1982
Evelyn Joll and Martin Butlin, L’opera completa di Turner 1793–1829, Classici dell’arte, Milan 1982, p.76.
1984
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.17.
1996
Gillian Forrester, Turner’s ‘Drawing Book’: The Liber Studiorum, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1996, p.57 no.10ii, reproduced, pp.160, 162.
2003
Paul Spencer-Longhurst, The Sun Rising through Vapour: Turner’s Early Seascapes, exhibition catalogue, Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham 2003, p.46.
2008
Gillian Forrester, David Hill, Matthew Imms and others, Reisen mit William Turner: J.M.W. Turner: Das Liber Studiorum, exhibition catalogue, Galerie Stihl, Waiblingen 2008, reproduced p.[6], colour, p.58.
Turner used his oil painting Ships Bearing Up for Anchorage, no.227 in the Royal Academy exhibition of 1802 (Tate T03868; displayed at Petworth House, West Sussex),1 as the basis of the present design for the Liber Studiorum; as indicated in the lettering of the subsequent engraving, the painting belonged by then to Lord Egremont (one of Turner’s greatest patrons), who may have bought it directly from the exhibition and certainly owned it by 1805.2 Other Liber studies (Tate D08168, D08185; Turner Bequest CXVIII e, Vaughan Bequest CXVIII N) relate to Turner’s paintings in Egremont’s collection; as do the unpublished prints Narcissus and Echo,3 for which no drawing is known, and (at one remove, from Turner’s painting based on Egremont’s Claude) Apullia in Search of Appullus4 (see introduction to section of drawings for unpublished Liber designs).
Since there is no record of Turner visiting Petworth between 1805 and the publication of the print, he probably worked from memory, and from his original sketches for the whole composition and individual ships in the Calais Pier sketchbook (Tate D04966–D04969, D04974, D04975, D04990, D04991, D05014, D05015, D05017; Turner Bequest LXXXI 64–65, 66–67, 72–73, 88–89, 112–113, 115). He significantly rearranged the vessels in a tighter, more dramatic composition, effectively bringing them from the background to the middle distance by cropping the painting’s wide expanses of sky and sea. In the drawing, a new ship, sailing away on the left, closely echoes the one on the far right, though Turner reduced its scale in the print to give more room for manoeuvre beyond the central, anchored vessel. He introduced even more forceful lighting, with slanting sunbeams at right angles to the rolling masts framing the group.5 A similar, if less conspicuous, focusing process can be seen in his design for Norham Castle on the Tweed (Tate D08158; Turner Bequest CXVIII D).
The published plate was untitled, though lettered ‘In the possession of the Earl of Egremont.’; the present title is the customary one, as given by Rawlinson in 1878.6 The composition is recorded, as ‘2[:] 4 Lord Egremont’, in the Liber Notes (2) sketchbook (Tate D12156; Turner Bequest CLIV (a) 23a), in a draft schedule of the first ten parts of the Liber (D12156–D12158; CLIV (a) 23a–24a)7 dated by Finberg and Gillian Forrester to before the middle of 1808.8 It also appears later in the sketchbook, as ‘10 Egremonts’, in a list of ‘Marine’ subjects (Tate D12164; Turner Bequest CLIV (a) 27a).9
The Liber Studiorum etching and mezzotint engraving, etched by Turner and engraved by Charles Turner, bears the publication date 20 February 1808 and was issued to subscribers in part 2 (Rawlinson/Finberg nos.7–11;10 see also Tate D08111–D08113, D08115; Turner Bequest CXVI J, K, L, N). Tate holds impressions of the preliminary outline etching (Tate A00929) and the published engraving (A00930). It is one of nine published Liber subjects in Turner’s ‘Marine’ category (see also Tate D08104, D08105, D08125, D08129, D08133, D08138; Turner Bequest CXVI C, D, X, CXVII B, F, K).
Technical Notes:
The sheet is not watermarked, but its batch has been identified as ‘J Whatman | 1801’.1 There are glossy spills of a dried liquid over the left third of the sheet, which caused the watercolour to run, and so apparently happened quite early in the sheet’s history. Pencil drawing is evident in the ships and spars. The paper was not washed initially; washes were applied with reserves left, followed by brushwork and scratching-out. Scratching- and washing-out were used for the lights of the sea. The overall cool brown colour comprises umber, sepia, and Indian red shades.2
Verso:
Blank, save for inscriptions.
Inscribed in pencil ‘502’ centre right, and ‘4’ [circled] bottom centre
There are isolated specks and spatterings, possibly of ink.
Matthew Imms
August 2008
How to cite
Matthew Imms, ‘Ships in a Breeze (‘The Egremont Sea Piece’) c.1806–7 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2008, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www