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This canvas depicts the Royal Yacht Club races held off the Isle of Wight in 1827. From vantage points on shore and aboard a man-o-war moored in the English Channel, Turner made seventy drawings and eight oil sketches of the races. True to his usual practice, however, he did not rely on any single study for this canvas.

Clearly, Turner did not wish to merely record a race but to recreate the romantic pageant of vessels challenging the wind and waves. The atmospheric clarity and complex composition derive from Turner's study of 17th-century Dutch marine painting.