'Kew Palace and Bridge Seen through Trees, from the Middlesex Bank of the Thames near the Entrance to the Grand Union Canal', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Kew Palace and Bridge Seen through Trees, from the Middlesex Bank of the Thames near the Entrance to the Grand Union Canal

From Studies for Pictures: Isleworth Sketchbook

Turner Bequest XC

Date 1805

MediumPen and ink on paper

Dimensionssupport: 150 x 258 mm

Collection

Tate

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

Reference

D05505

Turner Bequest XC 11

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

Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the Studies for Pictures: Isleworth Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 11 Recto:

Kew Palace and Bridge Seen through Trees, from the Middlesex Bank of the Thames near the Entrance to the Grand Union Canal 1805

D05505
Turner Bequest XC 11

Pencil and pen and ink on off-white wove paper, prepared with a grey wash, 150 x 258 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘11’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘XC 11’ bottom left, descending vertically

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

Hill gives a full description of the subject and viewpoint, on the Middlesex bank of the Thames near the entrance to the Grand Union Canal and the mouth of the River Brent. James Wyatt’s new Kew Palace, with its castellated roof, is clearly seen; Hill notes that the building on the left, part of which was a former windmill, was in use as a basket factory. Also noticed by Hill is the similarity of viewpoint to a watercolour formerly known as Eton College, from the Thames 1 but now identified as depicting Kew Palace (Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester).2 A sketch of a similar view, with less detail and cut off somewhat on the right, is on folio 13 of the sketchbook (D05508). Compare also the contemporary watercolour in the Hesperides (1) sketchbook (Tate D05833; Turner Bequest XCIII 38a).

David Blayney Brown
August 2007

Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p.346 no.413.

Craig Hartley, Turner Watercolours in the Whitworth Art Gallery, exhibition catalogue, Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester 1984, pp.37–9.

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.