Joseph Mallord William Turner, RA and Thomas Girtin

Arthur Crossland of Heaton Manor, Bradford (1879-1962),

his sale, London, Christie’s, 9 March 1956, lot 20 (as J.M.W. Turner, ‘Fishing Boats and Rowing Boats’), bt Wilder;

sale, London, Sotheby’s, 11 July 1996, lot 21 (as J.M.W. Turner, ‘Fishing Boats on the Shore’);

with Guy Peppiatt Fine Art, London, by 2013

London, Guy Peppiatt Fine Art, 2014, no. 13 (as by J.M.W. Turner);

New York, Shepherd / W & K Galleries, 2015, no. 21 (as by J.M.W. Turner)

This well preserved drawing dates to circa 1795-6 and is likely to be derived from an on-the-spot sketch by John Henderson (1764-1824), amateur artist and collector who lived at 4 Adelphi Terrace, London and who made a series of drawings when he visited Dover in the autumn of 1794.

The work was almost certainly painted at 8 Adelphi Terrace, the London home of Dr Thomas Monro (1759-1833), a leading physician who was also an enthusiastic amateur artist. During the winter evenings of the 1790s, Monro famously opened his doors to young artists, giving them supper, providing them with a place to meet and socialize as well as permitting them to make copies from his, and his friends, extensive collections. Artists would work by candlelight at double-sided drawing desks and by December 1794 the Royal Academician and diarist Joseph Farington (1747-1821) described the house as being ‘like an Academy.’ The young Turner and Girtin were regular attendees and it was Farington who noted that they would often collaborate during these evenings: Girtin drawing the outlines before passing the sheet to Turner, who would bring it to life through watercolor washes, tints and tones.

The drawing was once owned by Arthur Crossland, a Bradford based wool-merchant who formed an important collection of pictures with a particular focus on the modern British school.