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We look across churning waves at four sailing ships and a wooden rowboat with four men aboard in this horizontal painting. Dark, iron-gray and tawny-brown clouds approaching from the right fill the top two-thirds of the composition. The water closest to us roils with steel gray and tan, which deepens to charcoal gray as it recedes toward low hills in the distant background. In the lower left corner of the painting, a wooden container bobs in the waves, and a white bird flies low over the water nearby. Two ships to the left of center head directly toward us, leaning steeply to our left with their beige sails taut with wind. Two men, tiny in scale, stand on the deck of the ship to our left. To our right, two ships with butter-yellow and peach sails cut through the water. Three men stand on the deck of the ship in the front, pulling on the rigging. Closest to us and to the right of center, the rowboat crests a wave, tilting forward so we look into the long side of the boat and see the four men there. Near the stern, one man hangs over the side while another holds onto him. Two men sit to the right, one facing us while the other faces away. Sunlight streaks down through a break in the storm clouds to fall on a ship with furled sails in the distance at the center of the composition. This and two additional ships near the distant shoreline are silhouetted against bands of white clouds around blue sky, beyond the bank of dark gray clouds closer to us.

Joseph Mallord William Turner

The Junction of the Thames and the Medway, 1807

West Building, Main Floor - Gallery 57

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 108.8 x 143.7 cm (42 13/16 x 56 9/16 in.)

framed: 148 x 180.3 cm (58 1/4 x 71 in.)

Credit Line

Widener Collection

Accession Number

1942.9.87

Artists / Makers

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

Image Use

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Inscription

on reverse of lining canvas in black ink: The Junction of the / THAMES and MEDWAY, from the / NOREBUOY, with a distant view / of SHEERNESS and the Isle of SHEPPY. / Painted by J.W.M. [sic] TURNER Esq r RA / In o [sic] Newington Hughes Esq.r.; below: No54

Provenance

Purchased 1807, almost certainly from Turner's gallery, by Thomas Lister Parker [1779-1858], Brownsholme Hall, Yorkshire; (sale, 1808, bought in).[1] (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 9 March 1811, no. 29, bought in). John Newington Hughes [-1848], Winchester, after 1826; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 14-15 April 1848, 2nd day, no. 147); (Thomas Rought); sold 3 May 1848 to Joseph Gillott, Birmingham; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 19-20, 26-27 April 1872, 4th day, no. 306); (Thos. Agnew & Sons, London); sold 1872 to Richard Hemming [died c. 1892], Bentley Manor, Bromsgrove, and London; by inheritance to his wife; sold 1892 to (Thos. Agnew & Sons, London); sold 1893 to (Wallis & Son, London); purchased 10 March 1894 through John G. Johnson by Peter A.B. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park; gift 1942 to NGA.

[1] David Brown, "Turner, Callcott and Thomas Lister Parker: New Light on Turners' `Junction of the Thames and the Medway' in Washington," Burlington Magazine, 117 (1975), 721.

Associated Names

Agnew & Sons, Ltd., Thomas
Agnew & Sons, Ltd., Thomas
Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd.
Gillott, Joseph
Hemming, Richard
Hemming, Richard, Mrs.
Hughes, John Newington
Parker, Thomas Lister
Rought, Thomas
Wallis & Son, Henry
Widener, Joseph E.
Widener, Peter Arrell Brown

Exhibition History

1807: Turner's gallery, 1807.

1852: Modern Works of Art, Birmingham Society of Artists, 1852, no. 37.

1857: Art Treasures of the United Kingdom: Paintings by Modern Masters, Art Treasures Palace, Manchester, 1857, no. 288.

1868: National Exhibition of Works of Art, Infirmory, Leeds, 1868, no. 1107.

1894: Forty-First Annual Exhibition of Selected High-Class Pictures, by British and Foreign Artists, French Galleries, (Wallis & Son), London, 1894, no. 26.

Technical Summary

The canvas has been lined. The ground is off- white, thinly and smoothly applied. There are traces of a buff-colored imprimatura above the ground in some areas. The painting is executed in very thin, transparent glazes in the darks; the sky is more opaquely rendered; moderate impasto is used in the highlights, especially in the waves. X-radiographs reveal pentimenti in the rowing boat: the boat was originally 2 cm. longer at the bow; the figure in the stern, now leaning over the side of the boat, originally sat with his back to the spectator; a rowing figure in the center of the boat has been painted out; the figure at the bow of the boat originally sat facing the spectator. The picture is very abraded in numerous thinly painted areas, and has been extensively retouched with small, feathered repaints that have darkened considerably. The moderately thick natural resin varnish has discolored yellow-brown to a significant degree.

Bibliography

1807: Morning Post, 6 May 1807.

1826: Carey, William Paulet. Patronage and Progress of the Fine Arts. London, 1826: 115.

1915: Roberts, William. Pictures in the Collection of P.A.B. Widener at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania: British and Modern French Schools, Philadelphia, 1915: unpaginated, repro.

1923: Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1923: unpaginated, repro.

1931: Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 190, repro.

1948: Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): 96, repro.

1952: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 144, color repro.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 322, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 133.

1966: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:368, color repro.

1968: Cooke, Hereward Lester. Painting Lessons from the Great Masters. London, 1968: 44, fig. 29.

1968: Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 150-151, color repro.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 120, repro.

1975: Brown, David. "Turner, Callcott and Thomas Lister Parker: New Light on Turners' `Junction of the Thames and the Medway' in Washington." The Burlington Magazine 117 (1975): 719-722.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 354, repro.

1975: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: no. 599, color repro.

1984: Butlin, Martin, and Evelyn Joll. The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner. 2 vols. New Haven and London, 1977. (2d rev. ed., 1984): 1:no. 62; 2:pl. 73.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 413, no. 584, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 406, repro.

1986: Chapel, Jeannie. "The Turner Collector: Joseph Gillott, 1799-1872." Turner Studies 6 (1986): 44-45.

1991: Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 199, color repro.

1992: Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 264-268, repro. 265.

2007: Warrell, Ian, ed. J.M.W. Turner. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Dallas Museum of Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. London and Washington, D.C., 2007: 242.

2011: Pergam, Elizabeth A. The Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857: Entrepreneurs, Connoisseurs and the Public. Farnham and Burlington, 2011: 313.