Oil on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Turner Bequest
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>
Figures on a Beach
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
actions: processes and functions
adults
beach
figure
group
groups
people
pulling
sea
seascapes and coasts
paper unique oil
9 June 2003 – 10 May 2004
2004-05-10
24 October 2003 – 3 January 2004
2004-01-03
2003-10-24
Manchester Art Gallery (Manchester, UK)
http://www.manchestergalleries.org
15 February 2004 – 10 May 2004
2004-05-10
2004-02-15
Burrell Collection (Glasgow, UK)
2003-06-09
Turner: The Late Seascapes
Loan-out
20 April 2006 – 13 August 2006
2006-08-13
20 April 2006 – 13 August 2006
2006-08-13
2006-04-20
Oklahoma City Museum of Art (Oklahoma, USA)
http://www.okcmoa.com
2006-04-20
Tempests and Romantic Visionaries: Images of Storms in European and American Art
Loan-out
26 January 2019 – 5 May 2019
2019-05-05
26 January 2019 – 5 May 2019
2019-05-05
2019-01-26
Turner Contemporary (Margate, UK)
2019-01-26
Katie Paterson & JMW Turner
Tate partnerships & programmes
Figures on a Beach
support: 259 × 299 mm
frame: 450 × 600 × 25 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>[from]<b> Nos. 487–500: Sketches of Coast and other Scenes, <i>c.</i> 1840–5?</b></p>
<p>THESE fourteen sketches on millboard were discovered in the early 1960s in a parcel among the works from the Turner Bequest transferred from the Tate Gallery to the British Museum in 1931; they had not been numbered or included in Finberg's 1909 <i>Inventory</i>. They fall into three groups according to size, approx. 10 1/2 × 12 in., 9 3/4 × 13 1/2 in. and 12 × 19 in., but form a homogeneous group technically and stylistically. Two further sketches from the same parcel are distinct in style, technique and the type of millboard used (see Nos. 485 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-red-sky-over-a-beach-d36676" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>D36676</span></a>] and 486 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-shore-scene-with-waves-and-breakwater-d36680" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>D36680</span></a>]). <i>Ship in a Storm</i> (No. 489 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-ship-in-a-storm-d36682" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>D36682</span></a>]) is close in <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> to <i>Snow Storm—Steam-Boat off a Harbour Mouth</i>, exhibited in 1842 (see No. 398 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-snow-storm-steam-boat-off-a-harbours-mouth-n00530" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00530</span></a>]), while others from the group such as <i>Sunset seen from a Beach with Breakwater</i> (No. 497 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-sunset-seen-from-a-beach-with-breakwater-d36679" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>D36679</span></a>]) are the equivalent in oils of very late <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>watercolours</span></a> such as those in the ‘Ambleteuse and Wimereux’ sketchbook of 1845 (CCCLVII). However, compositional resemblances help very little in dating Turner's late works and comparison between works in different <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/medium" title="Glossary definition for 'Medium'"><span>media</span></a> is equally fruitless.</p>
<p>Thirteen unspecified sketches from Nos 485–500 were first exhibited at the British Museum in 1962 (see under ‘Lit.’ below).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> <i>Sketch Books and Albums of Drawings, German Gothic and Renaissance Prints: Oil Sketches by J.M.W. Turner. Exhibition held in the Department of Prints and Drawings</i> 1962; ‘British Museum: Rediscovered Oil Sketches by J.M.W. Turner’, <i>Illustrated London News</i> 10 March 1962, p. 371.</p>
<p></p>
<p><b>496. </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-figures-on-a-beach-d36690" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>D36690</span></a>]<b> Figures on a Beach</b> <i>c.</i> 1840–5? </p>
<p>THE BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON (1974.U.852)</p>
<p>Millboard, irregular, 10 3/16 × 11 3/4 (26 × 30)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856.</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
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: processes and functions adults beach figure group groups people pulling sea seascapes and coasts
M 1974 U852