'Wollaton Hall: Part of the South Front', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Wollaton Hall: Part of the South Front

From Matlock Sketchbook

Turner Bequest XIX

Date 1794

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 111 x 181 mm

Collection

Tate

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

Reference

D00246

Turner Bequest XIX 34 a

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Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the Matlock Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 34 Verso:

Wollaton Hall: Part of the South Front 1794

D00246
Turner Bequest XIX 34a

Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 181 mm

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

Wollaton, near Nottingham, is one of the most spectacular of the ‘prodigy houses’ built in the decades about 1600. Its architect was probably Robert Smythson, who was certainly involved in its construction in the 1580s, for Sir Francis Willoughby. It had been the subject of a bird’s-eye view by Jan Siberechts (1627–c.1700; Yale Center for British Art, New Haven), and was perhaps of special interest to Turner’s generation on account of its self-consciously romantic ‘medievalising’ design, with window tracery and tourelles on the corners of the extraordinary raised central hall.

A second drawing of the house is on folio 35 verso (D00247). That and the present drawing are inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

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.