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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Study of Three Venetian 'Bragozzi' or 'Topi' under Sail 1833

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 10 Recto:
Study of Three Venetian ‘Bragozzi’ or ‘Topi’ under Sail 1833
D31944
Turner Bequest CCCXIV 10
Pencil on white laid paper, 109 x 203 mm
Inscribed by C.F. Bell in black ink ‘10’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCXIV – 10’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally. The page’s title was amended by Ian Warrell to ‘A Group of Three Bragozzi, with Sails Raised’ in 2003, in connection with his concurrent Turner and Venice exhibition at Tate Britain.1 He subsequently described the vessels as such, or perhaps of the smaller general-purpose topo class.2
For other studies in this sketchbook showing local shipping in isolation or particularly prominently in topographical views of the city, see under folio 2 verso (D31931), and for the book’s somewhat convoluted overall sequence, see its Introduction.

Matthew Imms
May 2019

1
Noted October 2003 in Tate registrars’ files.
2
Draft notes of 2010–11, Tate cataloguing files.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Study of Three Venetian ‘Bragozzi’ or ‘Topi’ under Sail 1833 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2019, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-study-of-three-venetian-bragozzi-or-topi-under-sail-r1203622, accessed 22 July 2024.