1 / 1

download image
This image is in the public domain. You can copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes. Learn more about our image policies.

A rowboat carrying seven men is tossed within a furrow of swelling waves under a blanket of copper-brown clouds in this horizontal seascape painting. The white, foamy waves curve up in a deep U-shape close to us. The people in the rowboat all appear to have light skin, and they wear clothing and hats in shades of crimson red, butter yellow, slate blue, gray, and white. Four of the men row with long oars as the boat pitches toward us. One other rowboat follows in the distance, barely visible over the surging wave to our right. A wooden board and some debris are in the churning waves near the lower right corner. The three masted ships in the distance cluster at the center of the picture, and at least two more are visible closer to the horizon, which comes about a third of the way up this painting. Flags and sails tug against the flagpoles and masts, whipping to our right. A bank of towering, puffy, light gray and white clouds lines the horizon. A pale blue band of sky separates those clouds from the curtain of dark clouds, which runs diagonally from the center of the left edge of the painting up to the right corner.

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Boats Carrying Out Anchors to the Dutch Men of War, c. 1804

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 101.6 × 130.81 cm (40 × 51 1/2 in.)

framed: 123.19 × 150.65 × 8.89 cm (48 1/2 × 59 5/16 × 3 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection)

Accession Number

2014.136.52

Artists / Makers

Joseph Mallord William Turner (painter) British, 1775 - 1851

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Provenance

William A. Clark [1839-1925], New York; bequest 1926 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.

Associated Names

Clark, William Andrews
Corcoran Gallery of Art

Exhibition History

1989: The William A. Clark Collection: Treasures of a Copper King, Yellowstone Art Center, Billings; Montana Historical Center, Helena, 1989, unnumbered checklist.

Bibliography

1925: Carroll, Dana H. Catalogue of Objects of Fine Art and Other Properties at the Home of William Andrews Clark, 962 Fifth Avenue. Part I. Unpublished manuscript, n.d. (1925): 140, no. 89.

1939: Finberg, A.J. The Life of J.M.W. Turner, R.A. Oxford, 1939: 108-109, 466.

1977: Butlin, Martin, and Evelyn Joll. The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner. New Haven, 1977: 34-35, pl. 46.

1984: Bachrach, Fred. Turner's Holland. London, 1984: 33, repro.

1984: Butlin, Martin, and Evelyn Joll. The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner. 2 vols. 2nd rev. ed. New Haven and London, [1977] 1984: pl. 62.