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

This page contains two extremely schematic studies of moored sailing vessels. Turner’s inscription in the top-left corner likely reads ‘Tartan’, indicating a small, single-masted fishing vessel also known as a tartane, which was common in the Mediterranean at this time. The inscription to the right is harder to decipher; Finberg’s 1909 Inventory of the Bequest tentatively proposed ‘Bourbon’.1 Alternatively, it might be an attempt to spell ‘Barque’, a three-masted vessel, or ‘Barca’, the Italian for boat. Details of the surrounding topography are omitted, although the location is likely in the old port of Genoa, following the overall itinerary embodied by the sketchbook (see the Introduction), which begins in this coastal city and ends near Livorno and Florence.

Sailing vessels are a recurring feature of the present sketchbook, a reminder of Turner’s keen interest in maritime themes: see folios 4 verso, 5 recto, 9 recto, 10 recto, 11 recto and verso, and 12 verso (D21419–D21420, D21428, D21430, D21432–D21433, D21435).