Oil paint on mahogany
Tate Collection
Works with images
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Turner Bequest
Oil paintings
Collection
Turner owned by Tate
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner-558" aria-label="More by Joseph Mallord William Turner" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Joseph Mallord William Turner</a>
Shipping by a Breakwater
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
adults
architecture
boat, rowing
breakwater
cloud
man
people
sea
seascapes and coasts
ship, sailing
society
sunshine
townscapes / man-made features
transport: water
wave
weather
<p>Turner was interested in marine subjects from an early age. He first made drawings of sea-going ships while visiting relatives at Margate at the age of about ten. Years later, when shown a print after the seventeenth-century Dutch marine artist Willem van de Velde, he is said to have declared, 'That made me a painter'.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint mahogany
18 February 2002 – 26 May 2002
2002-05-26
18 February 2002 – 26 May 2002
2002-05-26
2002-02-18
Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore, USA)
http://www.artbma.org
4 October 2002 – 12 January 2003
2003-01-12
2002-10-04
Fundación Juan March (Madrid, Spain)
http://www.march.es
14 February 2003 – 30 April 2003
2003-04-30
2003-02-14
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Lisbon, Portugal)
http://www.museu.gulbenkian.pt/
2002-02-18
Turner - Baltimore
Tate partnerships & programmes
18 February 2002 – 26 October 2002
2002-10-26
18 February 2002 – 26 May 2002
2002-05-26
2002-02-18
Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore, USA)
http://www.artbma.org
4 September 2002 – 19 January 2003
2003-01-19
2002-09-04
Fundación Juan March (Madrid, Spain)
http://www.march.es
20 February 2003 – 18 May 2003
2003-05-18
2003-02-20
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon, Portugal)
2002-02-18
Turner and the Sea
Tate partnerships & programmes
8 February 2013 – 13 April 2014
2014-04-13
8 February 2013 – 19 May 2013
2013-05-19
2013-02-08
Art Gallery of South Australia (Adelaide, Australia)
http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au
4 June 2013 – 8 September 2013
2013-09-08
2013-06-04
National Gallery of Australia (Canberra, Australia)
8 October 2013 – 18 December 2013
2013-12-18
2013-10-08
Toyko Metropolitan Art Museum (Toyko, Japan)
1 January 2014 – 13 April 2014
2014-04-13
2014-01-01
Kobe City Museum (Kobe, Japan)
2013-02-08
J.M.W. Turner: Makings of a Master
Loan-out
Shipping by a Breakwater
support: 302 × 194 mm
frame: 386 × 273 × 38 mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the <a href="/search?gid=999999781" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Turner Bequest</a> 1856
<p>Turner was interested in marine subjects from an early age. He first made <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> of sea-going ships while visiting relatives at Margate at the age of about ten. Years later, when shown a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>print</span></a> after the seventeenth-century Dutch marine artist Willem van de Velde, he is said to have declared, 'That made me a painter'.</p>
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2004-09-03T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>33.</b> [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-shipping-by-a-breakwater-n00469" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00469</span></a>] <b>Shipping by a Breakwater</b> <i>c.</i> 1798
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (469)
<br/>Mahogany, 11 7/8 × 7 5/8 (30·3 ×19·4)
<br/><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (98, ‘Marine Subject’ 1'0" ×0'7 1/2"); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1910.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> Tate Gallery 1931 (7); R.A. 1974–5 (33).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Thornbury 1862, i, p. 262; 1877, p. 418; Armstrong 1902, p. 231; MacColl 1920, p. 4; Davies 1946, p. 187.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Not so far as is known directly related either to a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a> sketch or <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> on the one hand, nor to a larger oil <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> on the other; this picture seems to be an independent <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> in its own right. Formerly dated <i>c.</i> 1802, it seems very tentative by the side of the sea studies in the ‘Calais Pier’ sketchbook of that year (LXXXI) and is close to watercolour or <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/gouache" title="Glossary definition for 'Gouache'"><span>gouaches</span></a> in the ‘Wilson’ and ‘Academical’ sketchbooks (XXXVII and XLIII; examples repr. Wilkinson 1972, pp. 57 and 82–3); these sketchbooks can both be dated <i>c.</i> 1798.
<br/>
<br/>There are pentimenti just below the bow of the nearest boat. The paint has been damaged along the top edge of the painting where it has been covered by the frame.</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, <i>The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner</i>, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults architecture boat, rowing breakwater cloud man people sea seascapes and coasts ship, sailing society sunshine townscapes / man-made features transport: water wave weather