Oil on canvas · c. 1823 · Tate
Second Sketch for The Battle of Trafalgar: A Turner Bequest Oil Study
A working oil connected to the large Trafalgar canvas Turner painted for St James's Palace, with the ships blocked in and almost nothing resolved.
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The record
An oil on canvas of around 1823 in the Turner Bequest, one of a small group of works associated with the royal Trafalgar commission that now hangs at the National Maritime Museum. Turner never exhibited it, and the title distinguishing it as the second sketch is a later cataloguing convenience.
| Artist | Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) |
|---|---|
| Date | 1823 |
| Medium | Oil paint on canvas |
| Dimensions | support: 902 x 1213 mm frame: 1228 x 1536 x 138 mm |
| Collection | Tate, London |
| Accession number | N00556 |
| Credit line | Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856 |
Two sketches survive
A first and a second sketch are both catalogued in the Bequest, and neither is signed or dated by Turner. The numbering reflects a curator's reading of which came earlier instead of any record he left, so the sequence is best treated as an ordering rather than as a fact.
Why the commission mattered
The finished picture was altered after naval officers objected to inaccuracies in the rigging and in the disposition of the ships, a process that Turner is recorded as having resented. The sketches represent the stage before that interference, which is by some way most of their interest as surviving historical documents.
Questions
Where is the finished Trafalgar commission?
At the National Maritime Museum over in Greenwich. It was painted for St James's Palace during the 1820s and is much larger and rather more conventionally arranged than the sketches, partly because naval officers required changes to the rigging and to the disposition of all the ships before it was accepted.
How does it relate to the finished Trafalgar?
It belongs to a small group of oils associated with the large canvas Turner painted for St James's Palace in the 1820s, which now hangs at the National Maritime Museum. The finished picture was altered after naval officers objected to inaccuracies, so the sketches record the composition before that intervention.