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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Figures on a Beach c.1826-45 > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Women in Bonnets ?Waiting to Board a Small Boat c.1826-40

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Women in Bonnets ?Waiting to Board a Small Boat’ c.1826-40
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Women in Bonnets ?Waiting to Board a Small Boat c.1826–40
D24629
Turner Bequest CCLIX 64
Gouache and watercolour on blue wove paper, 100 x 192 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Inscribed in red ink ‘64’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLIX 64’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This study shows figures including women in bonnets, apparently waiting on a sloping beach or quay near a small boat. They are presumably passengers embarking on a sea voyage; see the Introduction from other examples.
As discussed there, this is one of the subjects of figures by the sea which Ian Warrell tentatively suggested as linked to Brighton around 1827, while noting that they could equally well show scenes in England or France on other occasions.1
1
See Warrell 1989, pp.120, 123 note 114.
Technical notes:
The sheet is narrower by some 40 mm than others with adjacent ‘D’ and Turner Bequest numbers, having been trimmed along a pencil line at the top.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed in pencil ‘54–68’ top left; inscribed in pencil ‘D24629’ bottom left.
There is a border of white paper or tape, with more paper adhering, indicating that the sheet was formerly mounted.

Matthew Imms
December 2015

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Women in Bonnets ?Waiting to Board a Small Boat c.1826–40 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2015, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2016, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-women-in-bonnets-waiting-to-board-a-small-boat-r1182571, accessed 21 November 2024.