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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Marine subjects c.1803-14 > Nelson Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Study for 'The Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory' 1805

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Study for 'The Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory'’ 1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 29 Verso:
Study for ‘The Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory’ 1805
D05475
Turner Bequest LXXXIX 22a
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 184 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn with the sketchbook inverted, this is a rough sketch of the composition and arrangement of ships for Turner’s picture, The Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory, exhibited at Turner’s Gallery in 1806 (Tate N00480;1 see the Introduction to this sketchbook). Showing the quarterdeck of the Victory and to her right the French ship Redoutable (see chiefly folio 10, D05457; Turner Bequest LXXXIX 11), it extends leftwards on to folio 30 (D05476; Turner Bequest LXXXIX 23) to include the Spanish flagship Santissima Trinidad (see folio 21 verso, D05458; Turner Bequest LXXXIX 12). Another slight sketch of the composition, now divided and bound as folios 15 verso and 11 (D05482, D05460; Turner Bequest LXXXIX 26a, 13), was originally a double-page spread, and there is another across folios 27 verso–28 (D05471– D05472; Turner bequest LXXXIX 20a–21). A more careful study of the composition is drawn across folios 14 verso–15 (D41427– D05481; Turner Bequest LXXXIX 26), for which see full catalogue entry.

David Blayney Brown
March 2006

1
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.46 no.58 (pl.68).

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Study for ‘The Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory’ 1805 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2006, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-study-for-the-battle-of-trafalgar-as-seen-from-the-mizen-r1139285, accessed 11 February 2025.