Sheerness and the Isle of Sheppey (after J.M.W. Turner)

Visiting Turner's Gallery in 1807, the President of the Royal Academy, Benjamin West, found 'views on the Thames, crude blotches, nothing could be more vicious'. Among them was the original of this composition (National Gallery, Washington DC), in fact one of the finest of Turner's breezy Thames marines. Turner's Sheerness was bought by Thomas Lister Parker, who seems later to have sold it and asked Callcott, a friend and admirer of Turner, to paint him a copy. This smaller version is probably a study for Callcott's copy.