Sheerness
Engraver Thomas Goff Lupton British
After Joseph Mallord William Turner British
Not on view
Lupton commissioned Turner in 1825 to produce a set of twenty-five marine watercolors that he intended to issue himself as a series of prints in twelve parts (including a title-page). The painter had previously worked with Lupton in collaboration with the publisher William Bernard Cooke for the "Rivers of England" series in 1822–26. Here in "Sheerness" a fleet of shipping is represented at the Nore, the confluence of the Thames and Medway rivers and the point at which the rivers meet the North Sea. Turner's watercolor was retained by the artist and is now at Tate Britain, London. The critic John Ruskin (1819–1900) considered the watercolor "one of the noblest sea-pieces which Turner ever produced." This print came from the third instalment issued in 1828, but soon the project got into difficulties and was abandoned before it was complete. It was eventually published—comprising just twelve prints—in 1856 after Turner's death under the new title "The Harbours of England," which is also in the Met's collection (51.648.2).
