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

Like the other works grouped here, 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 this subsection and the overall section.1

With its pale, fluid ochre and grey washes, this is the most evanescent of the sequence. James Hamilton has described it as ‘outstanding’ among Turner’s ‘expressive’ maritime watercolours: a ‘ghostly white-on-white Ship Leaving Harbor, an image that is practically unreproducible, and almost not there’.2 Nevertheless, the scene appears to have a grounding in reality, and may recall small pencil sketches of sailing boats off the long, low Gosport blockhouse at the entrance to the harbour in the Louis-Philippe at Portsmouth sketchbook (Tate D35721; Turner Bequest CCCLXII 20).

Technical notes:

The paper has a slightly rougher texture towards the bottom left, which appears to be as it was manufactured rather than through any later treatment.

Verso:

Blank; inscribed in ink ‘6’ bottom left, upside down (for other sheets numbered in this way see the Introduction to this subsection); stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram over ‘CCCLXIV – 98’ bottom right.