'?Ashburnham Forge; Pevensey Bay in the Distance', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

?Ashburnham Forge; Pevensey Bay in the Distance

From Vale of Heathfield Sketchbook

Turner Bequest CXXXVII

Date ?1810

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 181 x 228 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Reference

D10226

Turner Bequest CXXXVII 12 a

View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms

Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the Vale of Heathfield Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 13 Verso:

?Ashburnham Forge; Pevensey Bay in the Distance ?1810

D10226
Turner Bequest CXXXVII 12a

Pencil on white wove paper, 181 x 228 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Blacksmith’ below a building lower centre, and illegibly within trees lower right of centre
Blind-stamped with the Turner Bequest monogram bottom right

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

Drawn with the sketchbook inverted and continued on folio 14 (D10227; Turner Bequest CXXXVII 13) this is perhaps a view of Ashburnham Forge near Ashburnham Place, in the light of Turner’s inscription below the building in the immediate foreground. The Ashburnhams were ironmasters as well as landowners, deriving much of their fortune from iron-smelting. Their forge was situated in a dip, as seen here. The forge closed in 1813 but, as Eric Shanes has pointed out, Turner must have been aware of it when he made his drawings in 1810.1 For a view of the Ashburnham Place estate, with a timber wagon presumably collecting fuel for the forge, see folios 44 verso–45 (D10311–D10313; Turner Bequest CXXXVII 68–9).

David Blayney Brown
March 2011

Eric Shanes, Turner in 1066 Country, exhibition catalogue, Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, Hastings 1998, p.11.

Read this catalogue entry in full

This catalogue entry is part of: David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, December 2012.