Oil paint on canvas
Isle of Wight
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>
East Cowes Castle Regatta Starting Their Moorings 2
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
architecture
bank
boat, yacht
castle
Cowes - non-specific
dock
East Cowes, East Cowes Castle
England
England, South East
England, Southern
Isle of Wight
leisure and pastimes
military
places
river
River Medina
society
sport
sunrise
times of the day
townscapes / man-made features
transport: water
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
UK natural features
water: inland
yachting
<p>Turner probably created this outdoors, perhaps on board a ship. He painted it, along with other sketches, on a long roll of canvas. This has since been cut up to display each sketch. It was probably painted on the morning of the Cowes Regatta. Yachts appear on the left, which from Turner's viewpoint in the harbour means they were setting out on the race. He used this sketch as a basis for a painting of the Cowes Regatta, made for the architect John Nash who lived at East Cowes Castle.</p><p><em>Gallery label, July 2020</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
18 June 2001 – 14 July 2002
2002-07-14
18 June 2001 – 14 July 2002
2002-07-14
2001-06-18
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-06-18
From Studio to Gallery: Sketches in the Turner Bequest
Collection based display
26 August 2002 – 18 July 2005
2005-07-18
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-08-26
Marine Painting
Collection based display
8 June 2007 – 3 February 2008
2008-02-03
8 June 2007 – 3 February 2008
2008-02-03
2007-06-08
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2007-06-08
Introducing Turner
Collection based display
6 April 2020 – 27 November 2022
2022-11-27
6 April 2020
2020-04-06
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2020-04-06
Clore 105
Collection based display
28 October 2023 – 10 March 2024
2024-03-10
28 October 2023 – 10 March 2024
2024-03-10
2023-10-28
Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus (Munich, Germany)
2023-10-28
Turner at Lenbachhaus Munich
Loan-out
Sketch for ‘East Cowes Castle, the Regatta Starting for Their Moorings’ No. 2
support: 445 × 737 mm
displayed: 714 × 998 × 105 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
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<p>Turner probably created this outdoors, perhaps on board a ship. He painted it, along with other sketches, on a long roll of canvas. This has since been cut up to display each sketch. It was probably painted on the morning of the Cowes Regatta.  Yachts appear on the left, which from Turner's viewpoint in the harbour means they were setting out on the race. He used this sketch as a basis for a painting of the Cowes Regatta, made for the architect John Nash who lived at East Cowes Castle.</p>
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2020-07-01T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p>[from]<b> Nos. 260–8: Cowes Sketches, 1827 </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-sketch-for-east-cowes-castle-the-regatta-starting-for-their-moorings-no-1-n01998" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01998</span></a>-<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-study-of-sea-and-sky-isle-of-wight-n02001" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02001</span></a>]</p>
<p>TURNER revisited the Isle of Wight in late July and August 1827, staying with the architect John Nash at East Cowes Castle. In an undated letter he asked his father to send one or if possible two pieces of unstretched <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/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a>, either a piece measuring 6 ft by 4 ft or a ‘whole length’, and it was on a 6 ft by 4 ft canvas, cut into two, that he painted these nine sketches. The 1854 Schedule of the Turner Bequest listed, under nos. 203 to 206, 207 to 210, 211 to 214, and 215 to 218, four ‘Roll[s] containing 4 subjects’. Despite the fact that one of the Cowes canvases contained five sketches the two rolls were probably among these four. They were rediscovered at the National Gallery in 1905 and divided into separate pieces. One roll contained Nos. 260 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-sketch-for-east-cowes-castle-the-regatta-beating-to-windward-no-1-n01995" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01995</span></a>], 262 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-sketch-for-east-cowes-castle-the-regatta-beating-to-windward-no-3-n01993" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01993</span></a>], 264 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-sketch-for-east-cowes-castle-the-regatta-starting-for-their-moorings-no-2-n02000" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02000</span></a>], 266 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-between-decks-n01996" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01996</span></a>] and 268 [<span>N02001</span>] and the other Nos. 261 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-sketch-for-east-cowes-castle-the-regatta-beating-to-windward-no-2-n01994" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01994</span></a>], 263 [<span>N01998</span>], 265 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-sketch-for-east-cowes-castle-the-regatta-starting-for-their-moorings-no-3-n01997" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01997</span></a>] and 267 [<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-off-east-cowes-headland-n01999" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01999</span></a>].</p>
<p>No record was made of the placing of the sketches on the two rolls on canvas, but to a certain extent this can be reconstructed. On the first roll the two largest sketches, Nos. 264 [<span>N02000</span>] and 262 [<span>N01993</span>], were one above the other, flanked on the left by Nos. 266 [<span>N01996</span>], 260 [<span>N01995</span>] (both upside down) and 268 [<span>N02001</span>]. On the other Nos. 267 [<span>N01999</span>] and 263 [<span>N01998</span>] were at the top, Nos. 265 [<span>N01997</span>] and 261 [<span>N01994</span>] below; No. 261 [<span>N01994</span>] was definitely to the right of No. 265 [<span>N01997</span>], and No. 267 [<span>N01999</span>] seems to have been above No. 265 [<span>N01997</span>].</p>
<p>It has been suggested by Graham Reynolds that at least some of these sketches were painted on the spot, though the practical difficulties, especially when the artist was out at sea, would have been considerable. As Evelyn Joll has suggested, a clue as to where Turner may have done the sketches is given by the sketch <i>Between Decks</i> (No. 266 [<span>N01996</span>]). This appears to have been painted a board a man-of-war and there seems no reason why Turner could not have painted the sketches of yachts racing from a ship anchored of Cowes Roads. If so, Turner's vantage point would seem to have been on a ship rather further offshore than the guardship that can be seen in Nos. 242, 261 [<span>N01994</span>] and 262 [<span>N01993</span>]. It is interesting that the three sketches for <i>The Regatta beating to Windward</i> would seem to have been painted alternately on each roll, No. 260 [<span>N01995</span>] on the first, No. 261 [<span>N01994</span>] on the second, and No. 262 [<span>N01993</span>] again on the first; this could have been to allow an assistant time to adjust the roll for a new sketch.</p>
<p>The ‘Windsor and Cowes’ sketchbook (CCXXVI) contains <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 boats racing, boats at anchor, views of the coast and figure studies, though none directly related to the oil sketches, which to a certain extent supports the suggestion that they were done on the spot. It also contains a list of the boats with their names, the names of their owners, and their colours, showing just how detailed was Turner's interest in the Regatta (CCXXVI-80 <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/r/recto-verso" title="Glossary definition for 'Recto / Verso'"><span>verso</span></a>).</p>
<p>The two groups of sketches of the Regatta were used for the pictures commissioned by John Nash and exhibited the following year (see Nos. 242 and 243). The other three, including <i>Between Decks</i>, were not used for more finished pictures.</p>
<p><b>264.</b> [<span>N02000</span>] <b>Sketch for ‘East Cowes Castle, the Regatta starting for their Moorings’ no. 2</b> 1827</p>
<p>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (2000)</p>
<p>Canvas, 17 1/2 × 29 (44·5 × 73·5)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (? one of 203–18; see p. 159); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1919.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> Lisbon and Madrid 1949 (46); Hamburg, Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen 1949–50 (96); <i>La Peinture sous le Signe de la Mer</i>
Galeries Royales, Ostend, August–September 1951 (97, repr); Cape Town 1952 (27); Arts Council tour 1952 (10, repr.); Antwerp 1953–4; Australian tour 1960 (7); R.A. 1974–5 (315).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Reynolds 1969<sup>2</sup>, p. 67, pl. 4.</p>
<p>One of the five sketches from the first roll of canvas, like No. 263 [<span>N01998</span>] from the other roll probably done on the spot, lacking the crowded activity of No. 265 [<span>N01997</span>] and the finished picture of <i>The Regatta starting for their Moorings</i> (No. 243).</p>
<p><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</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-23T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
architecture bank boat, yacht castle Cowes - non-specific dock East Cowes, East Cowes Castle England England, South East England, Southern Isle of Wight leisure and pastimes military places river River Medina society sport sunrise times of the day townscapes / man-made features transport: water UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions UK natural features water: inland yachting