Old Masters, British & European Paintings - Day 1 - 5th September 2023
Lot 186
Joseph Mallord William Turner RA (1775-1851)
Estimate £3,000 - £5,000 | Hammer £32000
+ Buyers Premium
Description
Joseph Mallord William Turner RA (1775-1851)
Brighton fishing vessel at sea
Watercolour heightened with white
13.5 x 20.9cm; 5¼ x 8¼in
Provenance:
William Blake of Newhouse;
And by family descent until 1962;
Property of a former museum keeper, collected between the 1930s and 1970s
Exhibited:
London, Tate Gallery and Royal Academy, Turner 1775-1851, November 1974-March 1975, no.36
Literature
Turner 1775-1851, exh. cat (Tate Gallery and Royal Academy of Arts, 1974), pp.41-42, no.36
The present work is part of a series of coastal scenes, mostly depicting fishermen and their boats, executed in watercolour and white bodycolour. They date from c.1798 and most are in the Turner Bequest. One of these works (Turner Bequest XXXIII-K) , shows the same boat depicted here, and has BRI…TON inscribed on the transom, so presumably the group were made during a visit to Brighton.
There is a later inscription on the reverse which says that Turner drew the work whilst giving a lesson to William Blake. Turner did have a pupil named William Blake, but it is more likely that Blake was allowed to keep the present work when shown it later.