Fishing Boats with Hucksters Bargaining for Fish (1837–38): Artwork and History

Fishing Boats with Hucksters Bargaining for Fish (1837–38) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Joseph Mallord William Turner (English, 1775–1851).

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

English artist J. M. W. Turner was fascinated by the sea. Here, a crowded fishing boat rides atop rolling, tumultuous waves. A smaller boat occupied by hucksters, or peddlers, navigates the churning waters as it approaches the larger vessel to negotiate the buying of fish to sell back at port. A steamship chugs along in the background, signaling the new industrial age. This painting dates from a period when the artist was increasingly interested in atmospheric drama and the effects of light, exemplified here by the turbulent storm brewing in the background. The sunlit water in the foreground is dotted with a thick impasto, the heavy application of paint that results in painterly depth and surface texture. For this composition and others, Turner was inspired by the tradition of seventeenth-century Dutch marine painting and its leading painter, Willem van de Velde, whose work was popular in England. The subject itself and compositional elements such as the low horizon line are characteristic of earlier Dutch seascapes, but Turner cleverly laid claim to this painting by signing it on the white flag fluttering high on the mast of the fishing boat that pokes through to the sliver of clear blue sky.

Object facts

• Title: Fishing Boats with Hucksters Bargaining for Fish
• Date: 1837–38
• Artist attribution: Joseph Mallord William Turner (English, 1775–1851)
• Place of origin: England
• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Dimensions: 174.5 × 224.9 cm (68 3/4 × 88 1/2 in.); Framed: 216.6 × 268 cm (85 1/4 × 105 1/2 in.)
• Type: Painting
• Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe
• Reference number: 1922.4472

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Kimball Collection

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