Portsmouth
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 "Portsmouth" a three-masted battleship, illuminated by diagonal beams of sunlight, is depicted leaving the harbour: an icon of British naval prowess. The large bulk of the battleship is amplified by the relative size of the sailboat in the foreground and cutter at the right. Turner's watercolor was retained by the artist and is now at Tate Britain, London. 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).
