Oil paint on canvas
Kent
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>
Fishing upon BlytheSand Tide Setting In
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
animals: birds
beach
Blythe Sands
boat, fishing
cloud
England
England, South East
England, Southern
Kent
places
sea
seagull
seascapes and coasts
society
Thames Estuary
transport: water
UK counties
UK countries and regions
UK natural features
weather
<p>This work was exhibited in Turner’s gallery in London in 1809 alongside other views of the Thames. The setting, now known as Blyth Sands are in the Thames Estuary, off Sheerness in Kent. Letters from the time suggest that Turner offered the picture to his patron, art collector Sir John Leicester late in 1810. It is also thought that Turner refused to sell it to another collector, Sir George Beaumont, who generally disliked his work. The canvas was apparently later used by Turner as a cat flap in his studio.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2019</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
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
24 October 2003 – 25 January 2004
2004-01-25
24 October 2003 – 25 January 2004
2004-01-25
2003-10-24
Barber Institute of Fine Arts (Birmingham, UK)
http://www.barber.org.uk
2003-10-24
J.M.W Turner: The Sun Rising Through Vapour
Loan-out
4 September 2004 – 9 January 2005
2005-01-09
4 September 2004 – 9 January 2005
2005-01-09
2004-09-04
Statens Museum for Kunst (Copenhagen, Denmark)
2004-09-04
Turner and Constable and their European Contemporaries
Loan-out
12 August 2009 – 26 July 2010
2010-07-26
12 August 2009 – 26 July 2010
2010-07-26
2009-08-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-08-12
Turner on the Thames
Collection based display
4 August 2010 – 9 April 2012
2012-04-09
4 August 2010 – 9 April 2012
2012-04-09
2010-08-04
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2010-08-04
Early Turner
Collection based display
21 April 2012 – 1 March 2020
2020-03-01
21 April 2012 – 1 March 2020
2020-03-01
2012-04-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-04-21
Turner Exhibited
Collection based display
3 February 2024 – 18 May 2025
2025-05-18
19 October 2024 – 12 January 2025
2025-01-12
2024-10-19
The Box (Plymouth, UK)
2024-02-03
Vija Celmins
Loan-out
Fishing upon the Blythe-Sand, Tide Setting In
support: 889 × 1194 mm
frame: 1036 × 1340 × 72 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
<div class="text">
<p>This work was exhibited in Turner’s gallery in London in 1809 alongside other views of the Thames. The setting, now known as Blyth Sands are in the Thames Estuary, off Sheerness in Kent. Letters from the time suggest that Turner offered the picture to his patron, art collector Sir John Leicester late in 1810. It is also thought that Turner refused to sell it to another collector, Sir George Beaumont, who generally disliked his work. The canvas was apparently later used by Turner as a cat flap in his studio.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2019-02-05T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>87. </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-fishing-upon-the-blythe-sand-tide-setting-in-n00496" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00496</span></a>]<b> Fishing upon the Blythe-Sand, Tide setting in Exh. 1809</b>
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (496)
<br/>Canvas, 35 × 47 (89 × 119·5)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (11, ‘Bligh Sands’ 4'0" × 3'0"); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1919.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> Turner's gallery 1809 (7); Turner's gallery 1810 (4, ‘Blyth Sand’); R.A. 1815 (6, ‘Bligh Sand, near Sheerness: Fishing boats trawling’); Plymouth 1815; Tate Gallery 1931 (39); Amsterdam (repr.), Berne (repr.), Paris, Brussels (repr.), Liege (repr.) (15), Venice and Rome (17) 1947–8; R.A. 1974–5 (155, repr.); Paris 1983–4 (24, repr.).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Ruskin 1857 (1903–12, xiii, p. 123); Thornbury 1862, i, pp. 179, 297; ii, p. 155, 173; 1877, pp. 304, 317, 432; Bell 1901, p. 95 no. 132; Armstrong 1902, p. 229; Davies 1946, p. 185; H. F. Finberg 1951, p. 384; Finberg 1961, pp. 157, 172, 218–19, 229, 470 no. 134, 476 no. 187, 512 no. 157d; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, p. 30, pl. 44; Lindsay 1966, p. 108; Gage 1980, p. 44.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Blyth Sands are in the Thames Estuary above Sheerness, facing Canvey Island. There is a related oil sketch among the large Thames sketches (No. 176 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-coast-scene-with-fishermen-and-boats-n02698" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02698</span></a>]) but with no precise details in common. There is also a wash <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> at the British Museum, closer in the placing of the nearest sailing boat but again not exactly the same (CXX-Q).
<br/>
<br/>The picture is one of the four mentioned, presumably as available for sale, in a letter to Sir John Leicester of 12 December 1810, accompanied by slight pen sketches (see Plate 203). According to Thornbury Turner also had ‘the proud pleasure of refusing to sell’ this picture ‘to his old enemy Sir John [<i>sic</i> for George] Beaumont’ (1862, i, p. 297). For the evidence that this picture was sent for exhibition in Plymouth late in 1815 see No. 19 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-jason-n00471" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00471</span></a>].
<br/>
<br/>Also according to Thornbury, ‘An artist who professionally examined the picture for me tells me that the sky was painted with perishable sugar of lead, and has quite altered’ (1862, i, p. 297). No evidence for this statement remains today. The <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> has been torn in five places, the most serious and extensive damage running down from the centre of the foreground boat almost to the lower edge of the picture; these tears have now been restored. This damage is presumably explained, as Evelyn Joll has suggested (exh. cat., Paris 1983–4), by Thornbury's story of Turner having used the picture as a cat door.</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
animals: birds beach Blythe Sands boat, fishing cloud England England, South East England, Southern Kent places sea seagull seascapes and coasts society Thames Estuary transport: water UK counties UK countries and regions UK natural features weather